Mask
by Rayven Lilith Sky
Summary: The Sanctuary team gets a surprise when they finally get a glimpse past the mask to see the real Nikola.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own Sanctuary, wish I did, only playing with the characters. Only own my own characters and the plot.

AN: Finally managed to get this uploaded. First there was coffee on the keyboard which fried that so I had to wait to get another, then a windstorm knocked out the power for a bit, then my internet stopped working and then my computer decided it really hated me and kept kicking me offline. I think my computer is possessed by a demon or I really pissed off someone in a past life.

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><p>Nikola squinted slightly as he strode outside into the bright light of mid-day, putting on a pair of dark sunglasses as he walked. He had a slight smile on his face as he strode barefoot towards the gardens of the Sanctuary, enjoying the heat of the sun on his skin and the tickling of cool grass on his bare feet. It was one of the rare days when he was left to himself as everyone else was out and about.<p>

Kate, Will and Henry were sent out to fetch a new Abnormal, which would take most of their day up so he needn't worry about being bothered by them. Helen and Druitt were currently following up a lead about a rare type of Were-Jaguar in the rainforests of Brazil (though he was almost certain that it was a plot by Druitt to get Helen alone for a few days). And the Big Guy was off doing who knows what with his spare time, which left Nikola mostly alone apart from the residents who mostly stayed downstairs.

It also meant he could wear what he preferred and not get gawked at by anyone. And what he currently was wearing was a slightly worn ACDC t-shirt and faded blue jeans that had a few tears in them. This was a far cry from his usual well-pressed suit. Admittedly he only wore the suits as part of his public persona as they fit the character he played to everyone. The truth of the matter was that he did not like the suits, the playing to everyone's expectations of how he should act, the constant pretending to be unaffected by the harsh words said in his direction. It was grating to play act all of the time, so the rare moments of peace when he could be alone and drop the mask was always a relief. It was during these times that he could drop his act and just pretend for a little while to be a normal 30-year-old male instead of a 155-year-old vampire scientist.

Nikola sat beneath one of the trees in the garden and pulled out his iPod, put it on shuffle before he opened his book to where he had stuck his bookmark inside and started to read.

A few hours later Nikola felt his cell phone vibrate as he received a text message. He pulled it out and read the message, rolling his eyes before texting back and returning to his book.

'_I wonder what the children would think if they saw me like this.'_ Nikola thought absently as his iPod started playing Led Zeppelin. _'As if I would spend 150+ years on this world and not keep up with technology and culture as it advances and changes.'_

"Though it might be worth it to see the look on their faces at my appearance." He muttered softly. His phone started vibrating again and he paused his music and pulled off the headphones once he saw the number.

"Hello Luc. What did you need?" Nikola asked pleasantly.

"Hey Nicky. Some of us were going to go to Eden tonight and we were wondering if you wanted to come with."

"And by 'some of us' you mean the girls are dragging you with them because they wanted to go clubbing and are forcing you to pay."

"Pretty much…" There was a pause from the male voice before he continued. "Plus we haven't seen you in a while and have been a bit worried."

"Why would you be worried?" Nikola asked, frowning slightly.

A sudden angry female voice came over the phone. "Maybe because you're part of our family and that Helen woman you told us about treats you more like a stray dog then a friend."

"Hello Samantha." Nikola said in annoyance. "Still sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong I see."

"Don't call me Samantha Nicky. You can just bite me vamp boy. I swear you are such a masochist when it comes to her and…dammit Lucifer Raziel Blackwood give me back that phone!"

"Why do you always have to break out the full name when you don't get your way _**Samantha**_? And why did I have parents insane enough to name me Lucifer?" He grumbled loudly before a loud smack was heard over the line. Obviously somewhere in the ruckus someone had put the phone on speaker allowing the vampire to hear everything going on. "Ow, that is spousal abuse right there. Why do you always go for the right side? Why can't you switch things up when trying to get your way?"

"Give me the phone or so help me I will make your life a living hell." Samantha said coolly. Nikola tried not to laugh as he listened to yet another of their arguments. They fought with each other all the time. It was often difficult for people who didn't know them to believe they were actually quite happy with one another and that this type of fighting was their kind of foreplay. He knew after the conversation they would avoid each other for maybe an hour or so before enjoying a quick make up sex session and things would be fine until their next pointless argument.

"Too late for that now kitten. I am already in hell just having you in the same room as me right now." There was a crash of something breaking and some choice words from Luc that will not be repeated. There was a brief pause from the couple on the phone before Luc spoke again.

"Well at least you got rid of that ugly vase your mother gave us. And just so you know, I am still not going to give you back the phone. I dare you to try it. I dare your crazy ass to try cause you know I will win." There was a loud growl, closely followed by a loud hiss and a long string of cursing and another loud crash that was cut off as the phone was taken off speaker.

"Sorry Nick, my wonderful, dearest and most caring wife grabbed the phone from me." The sarcasm was quite evident in Luc voice as he spoke.

"Its fine Luc." Nikola was really trying not to laugh at how flustered his friend actually sounded.

"But she does have a point…your friend Helen does not always treat you like much of a friend."

"It is a complicated relationship we have. It can only be expected after 150 years."

"I suppose. I don't like it and neither do the girls but you are more then capable of making your own decisions. Anyway, back to the original topic…Eden…you in or out? And yes I am well aware of the irony of my name being Lucifer and going to a club named Eden so don't even bother with the jokes. I've been getting them all day."

Nikola thought about it for moment, remembering the harsh accusations that had been thrown at him earlier that day by Will and Henry about something that had exploded in one of the labs near his causing a decent amount of damage. He hadn't even been near the labs at the time of the explosion but they thought it was his fault anyway as he had mentioned leaving an experiment running in his lab last night. There had also been an unnecessarily large amount of harsh words from an obviously stressed and annoyed Helen about said incident. He wouldn't hold those words against her, though it had hurt that she would think he wouldn't take proper safety precautions to avoid such things happening. That wasn't even mentioning the smug looks from Druitt as he stood by Helen as she chewed him out in front of the children. He shook his head to clear out the memories before answering his friend.

"In. I could use a night off to just have fun."

"Wow, Nikola Tesla actually wanting to have fun instead of being dragged off from his work." Luc said playfully causing Nikola to smile.

"Bite me."

"Oh you wish pretty boy. Besides I thought biting was your thing."

"Depends on the day." Nikola quipped.

"What about today?"

"What's today?"

"Tuesday."

"I don't do Tuesdays. Tuesdays are reserved for annoying things like the end of the world or kidnappings."

"The girls always kidnap you on Tuesdays don't they?"

"No comment. I should probably get going. The children will be back soon and I don't want to deal with them right now."

"Why not?"

"They're pissed off about something I didn't even do. So I really don't feel like dealing with glares and insults right now."

"Alright then I will see you at 8 sharp?"

"I'll be there. Might end up being later if I can't sneak out."

"Okey dokey. Better be there by 8:30 at the latest cause the girls probably will come and kidnap you if you refuse."

"I don't doubt it. I'll call if I can't make it because some annoying end of the world thing pops up. See you later Luc." Nikola hung up the phone with a slight smile before tucking it away in his pocket. Talking to Luc and Sam always cheered him up because of the crazy arguments they usually had. He stood up with his book, tucked his iPod into his pocket and stretched in a catlike manner before heading inside to change before the annoying ones came back home.

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><p>Nikola unfortunately ran into the Three Stooges just as he was on his way to his lab to see if anything was salvageable. Luckily he had already changed back into his suit. He sighed softly to himself before putting on his irritated, uncaring façade as they came into view. They stopped their laughing at whatever story they had been telling and fell silent when they say him.<p>

"What are you doing here Tesla?" Kate snapped out harshly to the vampire that apparently she didn't like today.

Nikola just gave her a cool look before answering. "I fail to see how that is any concern of yours Freelander."

"Actually it is, since you almost blew up the lower levels this morning." Will said in annoyance.

"Didn't Magnus lock you out of the lab area anyway?" Henry asked curiously.

"She did, although it isn't exactly difficult to get down there. The security system is no challenge at all. I also find it a complete overreaction on her part as I had nothing to do with what happened." Nikola grumbled irritably causing the others to look incredulously at him.

"Dude, the entire section is toast. It is going to take weeks to get things running again." Henry said in disbelief.

"And maybe Helen will actually use some her money to get some equipment that isn't of substandard quality so some decent work can be done without having to scavenge for scraps."

"Maybe you should go back upstairs and let us do our work." Will said quickly trying to avoid an argument between the werewolf and vampire, not realizing just how condescending he sounded.

"Don't take that tone with me. I don't need to be spoken to as though I am a child." Nikola snapped, his irritation growing.

"Maybe you shouldn't act like one." Kate quipped with a smirk. Nikola just pursed his lips and walked off before he gave in to the rising urge to rip them to shreds.

"He really needs a girlfriend or something." Kate said with a shake of the head. Will and Henry nodded in agreement before continuing on their way.

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><p>"I fucking hate them. As if I actually did anything wrong. My experiment wasn't even capable of exploding, it wasn't even charged. That would be why I left it in the lab, so isn't as though it would have done anything anyway. God, I really do need to get out of here before I go completely insane." Nikola ranted to himself, running a hand through his hair as he paced back and forth in his rarely used room. He paused in his pacing long enough to glance at his watch, as he realized he should get ready to meet his friends.<p>

He stripped out of his suit before pulling on a pair of form fitting jeans, a plain black t-shirt and a pair of motorcycle boots. He grabbed a leather jacket and stuffed his wallet and cell phone in one of the pockets before leaving. Over the years he had become an expert at sneaking in and out of the Sanctuary, so it was easy for him to get past the security and everyone inside without being seen. He walked about two blocks to some storage lockers where he opened one and went inside.

He smiled and ran a hand almost lovingly over the tarp-covered object before pulling it off to reveal a sleek black motorcycle. He grabbed the helmet next to it, before rolling the vehicle out of the locker and relocking it. He pulled on his helmet, zipped up his jacket and started it up. He flipped down the visor before riding off towards the other side of town to meet his friends.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I finished this chapter early and my computer actually likes me tonight so I figured I better post this before it becomes possessed again. The chapter turned out to be a lot different near the end then I expected or planned but I think it works. Enjoy.

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><p>The motorcycle stopped in the parking lot of the club. He shut off the motor and pulled off his helmet. As he got off the bike he was pounced on from behind.<p>

"Nicky…we've been waiting for you. I missed you last week, where the hell were you?" The woman who had jumped on his back asked rapidly.

"Hello to you as well Jade. I'm sorry that I have been busy and did not have a chance to call." She got off his back and spun him around, hugging him tightly.

"Ok. You have been forgiven. Don't let it happen again or else." Jade smiled as she mockingly scolded him. He just smiled back at the woman before him. She had bright blue eyes that were speckled with silver and blood red hair that fell down past her shoulders. She was wearing a simple black tank top with a pair of blue jeans and black boots with a 4-inch heel.

The hyperactive pixie like woman grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards the crowd of people waiting outside the club.

"Luc…I found him!" Jade said pulling him over to the small group comprised of two gorgeous brunette women, one strawberry blond woman, as well as a golden haired man who was looking amused at Nikola being pulled around by a 5'2" woman who had more liveliness then the Energizer Bunny on speed.

"Hey Nicky." Luc said obviously trying not to laugh at Nikola.

"Luc…"

"Yes?"

"Go to hell."

"Aw, I love you too Nicky. Unfortunately, I've been there, done that. I am married to Sam after all." The tall blond man said playfully causing all the women to roll their eyes.

"Stop flirting Luc. We both know he will never go for you." The remark was accompanied by a smack on the arm from the strawberry blond.

"Ow, Hey I just play around." Luc grabbed her hands in his and kissed them before speaking in an overly dramatic but heartfelt tone.

"We both know you are the only one for me. You are my most precious jewel, my bright star more magnificent then any in the heavens above, my beautiful desert blossom, my fierce warrior goddess, you are the love of my life, without you I would have no reason for living…do I need to go on or have I buttered you up enough for the moment?" His dark emerald green eyes met her deep sapphire blue for a moment before…

"OW, geez, why can't you be nice for once Samantha? Honestly, always abusing me." Luc said rubbing his arm where his wife had punched him.

"Stop being an ass. And don't call me Samantha" Sam was smiling though and had a slight blush so everyone knew she didn't really mean what she said. She pulled Nikola in for a hug and set about ignoring Luc for the moment.

"Its nice to see some things never change Sammy." Nikola said as he was pulled away from the blond only to get pulled into another hug by both of the beautiful identical brunette twins. They were gorgeous 5'7" girls with perfect hourglass figures, long chocolate brown hair that fell to mid waist and entrancing light green eyes. Both were wearing black mini skirts with 3 inch knee high boots and red halter-tops.

"Natasha, Alexis…how are my favorite twins tonight?" He asked as they wrapped themselves around either side of him causing some of the people around them to stare in jealousy.

"We are doing great now that you are here. Luc is such a bore sometimes." Alexis said in her matter of fact tone causing Luc to pout as everyone laughed at him.

"You guys suck. What, is it pick on Luc day?" He grumbled good-naturedly.

"Every day is pick on Luc day." Sam said causing everyone to laugh as they walked towards the door of the club. The twins were still on either side of Nikola while Luc pulled Sam and Jade against him and followed behind.

"Hey Mike, how's the family?" Alexis asked the bouncer once they got to the doors.

"Not bad Lex. How's your mother doing?"

"Pretty good. Her surgery went well and now she's back to being her usual self."

"That's good. Tell her I said hi."

"Will do."

"Have fun." He said as he let them inside.

"Don't we always?" Natasha said over her shoulder as they entered, the loud pounding sound of music washed over them as they made their way over to the bar. The bartender waved hello as he started preparing their usual drinks. Sam gave everyone a serious look after they had gotten their drinks and found a table.

"Alright, now everyone knows the rules for a night out. Tonight is about having fun. We dance, we drink, and we have ourselves a good time. No talking about work, exes, or abnormals. Got it?" Sam said loud enough for everyone to hear the threat in her voice. She was only 5'5" tall and only about 125 pounds but the girl could put down any guy twice her size in seconds. Of course it did help that she is a martial arts instructor and has several black belts. They had all learned not to take her threats as a joke, especially her husband.

"Understood." Nikola said for everyone before they all took a shot. Natasha and Alexis immediately went out onto the dance floor and were soon encased on all sides by gorgeous guys and even a few ladies.

Jade stood up and grabbed Nikola and Luc as soon as they had taken off their jackets, and proceeded to drag them onto the dance floor before they could protest.

"Come on Nicky. You wanted to relax and have fun. Now come on and lets dance." Jade said as she danced with Nikola and Luc moved behind her. Sam just rolled her eyes at the hyper woman who had stolen her husband before she got up to find herself a dance partner.

They danced for a while before the twins joined Luc and they all started to move in ways that were absolutely sinful to watch. Luc swiveled his hips and swayed in an almost snakelike fashion as the girls ground against him in such a truly sensual way. Not one person nearby was unaffected by the sight.

Nikola and Jade both got off the dance floor for some drinks and sat down as they watched in amusement at the sight of their friends driving everyone crazy. Sam saw them from where she was and rolled her eyes again, it was just like Luc and the twins to show off to everyone and make them want what they couldn't have.

"Ok now spill." Jade said sipping her drink once they were alone at the table.

"Spill what?" Nikola asked in confusion.

"You are obviously upset about something. We didn't even have to kidnap you to get you here, and that only happens when you're upset. So spill."

Nikola sighed before relating the whole story to Jade who scowled and her eyes went murderous with each passing word.

"…And here I am telling you my story." Nikola concluded and looked at Jade who still had a look of murder in her eyes. The glass in her hand shattered as she looked at Nikola.

"I am going to kill them. Incredibly slowly and painfully. I will make them wish they had never messed with my vampire." She said in a low deadly tone.

"Jade…its ok. I am quite used to their behavior by now." Nikola said putting a hand over hers before picking out shards of glass from her palm.

"Well you shouldn't have to be used to it." She said coolly. The others came over having seen Jade's unusually icy look.

"What's going on?" Luc asked as he sat down.

"I'm going to kill Nikola's so called friends slowly and painfully. Wanna help?" Jade was generally a friendly cheerful woman who almost never got upset. The one thing that never failed to get her riled up however, was someone doing something to upset or hurt one of her family or friends. And right now she had murder in her eyes for the treatment of her vampire.

"What did they do this time?" Luc asked. Jade gave them the Cliff Notes version of what had happened to Nikola and everyone's face grew stormy.

"I was thinking torture instead of death. Death is too good for them. Too easy." Sam said with a vicious smile on her face. "And torture can take a very, very long time if planned correctly."

"Sam…" Natasha gave the girl an appraising look before continuing. "Remind me to never piss you off."

"Or to go to you if we ever need help with an ex." Alexis said causing the tension to break as everyone started laughing.

"Really guys…I appreciate the sentiment but I am fine. It isn't a big deal since I am here with my real friends and having a good time." Nikola said smiling brightly.

"We should kidnap him." Natasha said playfully to her sister who nodded in mock thoughtfulness.

"And keep him for ourselves and away from those horrible people." Alexis continued in that flirty tone.

"Not going to share?" Luc asked with a playful pout causing the laughter to intensify just as he had planned.

"Nope. He's ours and ours alone." The twins said as they each grabbed an arm and curled up against the vampire who just rolled his eyes but wrapped an arm around each slender waist.

"No fair." Luc pouted again with an exaggerated sigh. "Oh well. I will get you someday Nicky."

"Only in your dreams maybe." Sam said.

"Bitch."

"Slut."

"Tramp."

"Whore."

"Well…can't really deny that one can you Luc?" Nikola said with a laugh.

"I hate you all." Luc said slumping into his chair with a pout.

"We love you too Luc." Jade said, ruffling his hair. "Why else would we put up with your flirting?"

"So glad you are getting a laugh at my expense." He grumbled softly.

"Someone has to be made the fool." Sam said with a smirk causing Luc to glare at her.

"I am so going to get you back for that when we get home. And I am not slutty thank you very much. I may flirt with others but it is only playful, I never mean it. Not when I have my beautiful hellcat. She is the only thing I could ever need." He said in a matter of fact voice. Sam smiled softly at him and nuzzled his neck tenderly causing the other girls to coo over how sweet they were.

"You guys are so cute." Jade said with a squeal as the pair started cuddling with one another. Nikola just grinned at them before he was pulled onto the dance floor yet again by the twins and they started moving sinfully against him.

Nikola pulled away from the twins after a while to go to the bar for another drink. He shook his head as the twins pouted playfully at him to stay before turning away to continue dancing. He ordered his drink, which came quickly and was about to return to their table when he bumped into someone causing him to almost spill his drink.

He glanced at who had run into him with an appraising eye. She was a slim blond woman wearing simple tight jeans with a black tank top and high-heeled boots. The blond woman stuttered out an apology before she paused and stared at him for a moment with a frown before a look of recognition appeared on her face.

"Oh, Mr…Tesla right?" She asked and Nikola stared at her trying to place where he had seen her before. It hit him after a moment. This was Will's girlfriend the FBI Agent who he had seen at the Sanctuary on occasion.

"Correct, um…" He trailed off for a moment as he tried to remember her name. He hated to admit it but while he was excellent at remembering most things, names were the one thing that always escaped him. It was probably why he was always giving nicknames to people.

_'What was her name again? Something with an A. Amy, Anne…'_ Nikola frowned slightly before it clicked and he continued as though he hadn't even trailed off.

"Abby if I remember correctly."

"Yeah. So…didn't expect to see you here." She said and shifted a bit awkwardly.

"And why is that?" He asked with a playful smile that caused her to relax a bit and smile back at him.

"You just seemed so…formal when I met you. You didn't seem like the type of person to be in a place like this. And well, I have to be honest…you were a bit intimidating at first." She confessed almost embarrassed by her admission.

"Me intimidating? Nah. I'm as sweet as a kitten. Just ask my friends if you don't believe me." He said teasingly as he glanced around the room for a moment. "And where is William tonight? I can't imagine he would leave you all alone, especially looking as lovely as you are right now." Nikola smiled flirtatiously causing Abby to blush slightly.

"He said he had work so he canceled our date. I didn't feel like going home so I decided to come here." She said tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and looking down slightly.

Nikola frowned slightly because as far as he knew, the young doctor had nothing to do this evening. The man had actually caught up on his paperwork (for once) and the Abnormal hunt earlier in the day was a bust so he didn't have any reason for not being with his girlfriend tonight.

"As far as I know he didn't have anything to do, but I suppose something could have come up unexpectedly."

"Yeah, I suppose." Abby said half-heartedly.

"Well then, his loss for missing out on the company of a beautiful woman. Would you care to have a drink with me and my friends?" He asked causing her to smile slightly and duck her head.

"I wouldn't want to intrude." She said so quietly that if Nikola hadn't been a vampire he might have missed her words. Nikola pursed his lips in anger at her idiot boyfriend for making her feel this way and he tilted her head upwards so they were looking eye to eye.

"Nonsense. If I had thought you would be intruding I would never have offered in the first place. Besides, I think my friends are curious to know just who I am talking with." He glanced over at the table and Abby's eyes followed. All Nikola friends were sharing whispers with each other and staring at them in curiosity. "They are always so nosy." He said in mock exasperation earning him a giggle from the blond.

"Well then, we wouldn't want to keep them waiting now would we Mr. Tesla?" Abby said, boldly linking her arm with his and grinning brightly as she placed her drink order.

"No we wouldn't, and please call me Nikola."

"Only if you call me Abby."

"That seems like a fair trade for the company of an exquisite beauty such as yourself."

He watched as her face brightened and she blushed at the compliments from the vampire. He watched as her face went from being so gloomy at being ditched by her boyfriend to looking lively at the attentions he was giving her. He smiled slightly to himself at a job well done. He never could stand the sight of an unhappy female.

_'I always was a sucker for a damsel in distress. And I really must speak with William about treating her better. No woman should be made to feel worthless and that is exactly what Will is doing to her.'_ He thought to himself as Abby collected her drink and they made their way over to the table where his friends were waiting eagerly to meet the young woman who had seemed to catch Nikola's attention. '_The least I can do is make her feel worthwhile and happy, if only for one night.'_


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I finished this chapter sooner then expected and my computer seems to like me today so I thought I would post it now that I have a chance to do so.

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><p>"Who do you think she is?" Luc asked quietly to the girls who were whispering to each other eagerly.<p>

"Dunno, but they seem to know each other." Jade said as she leaned over the table to get a better look at the pair slowly headed towards them.

"Well, I think its great. Nicky needs to get laid." Alexis said bluntly.

"You mean you think its time for him to move on from Katarina." Sam said coolly as she sipped her drink.

"Well yes but that wasn't what I meant." Alexis tried to backtrack. "I just meant that he seems so lonely and it would be good for him to have some companionship."

"You really think he's ready for that?" Luc asked. "He still has nightmares about what happened to her."

"He does? Why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he tell me?" Jade asked in surprise. "I thought he was doing ok."

"He told me that he didn't want to worry any of you. He didn't want you to make a fuss over him. They only happen once in a while and he will probably kill me if he knew I told you guys."

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they took in this new information. Nikola and Abby reached the table and they all looked at them, serious conversation temporarily forgotten.

"And who is this lovely young thing Nicky?" Luc asked with a curious smile.

"Abby, allow me to introduce you to my friends. The twins are Natasha and Alexis, Natasha is on the right and Alexis the left. The crimson pixie is Jade. The hellion is Samantha, she prefers Sam or Sammy and oh, her husband Lucifer." Nikola said and they each grinned and waved hello.

"Don't call me Lucifer Nikola. You know I prefer Luc because obviously my parents were insane." Luc said with a pout causing Abby to giggle a bit at his annoyed tone.

"That explains a lot." Nikola muttered as he offered Abby a seat.

"I am not insane thank you very much."

"That's debatable." Everyone said at once before laughing causing Abby to chuckle at the pouty face the teased man now wore.

Jade immediately started asking Abby questions once the laughter quieted down.

"So how do you know our Nicky?"

"I met him once very briefly when I needed some help with a case and went to an old friend for help." Nikola couldn't help but smile inside when she referred to Will as an old friend. Obviously she was not happy with her boyfriend at the moment.

"A case? What do you do? Are you police?" Natasha interrupted suddenly.

"FBI actually. What about you guys? What do you do for a living?" Abby asked politely, sipping her drink.

"Well…" Natasha paused for a moment before continuing. "I work at the hospital as a trauma surgeon and my dear sister is a hematologist."

"Really?" Abby looked surprised since the twins did not seem the doctor type. They just grinned at her mischievously and she realized that they must get this reaction often to their statement. "I would never have guessed."

"They're the best in the city." Nikola said with pride in his voice. The girls just blushed slightly and waved away his comment.

"We're hardly the best. But we're certainly close." Alexis said causing everyone to laugh. "But enough about us, Jade here is a psychologist. Though it really isn't all that surprising since she was always good at getting people to open up to her."

"She is one of the few people who can get me talking about things without my realizing it. She's helped me with a few things in the past." Nikola said in a quiet sad tone and Abby touched his arm in sympathy. She smiled warmly at him and he felt his face heat up slightly. Sam hid a smile at the blushing vampire and decided to save him some embarrassment by continuing the conversation.

"I'm a martial arts instructor myself." Sam said and Abby perked up slightly at hearing that.

"She has something like 8 black belts." Luc said proudly as he wrapped an arm around Sam's waist. She swatted his arm and rolled her eyes.

"Don't be stupid Luc, it's only 6 not 8."

"Sorry dear, I forgot." Luc said in a bored tone making Abby think that they probably have had this conversation quite a few times before.

"Do you offer lessons? I'm a bit out of practice." Abby said causing Nikola to look at her appraisingly.

"Yeah. Come by some time and we'll set you up." Sam wrote down the address and number for her studio and handed it to Abby.

"You practice martial arts?" Nikola asked curiously causing her to look at him.

"Yeah, but I haven't had much time lately so I think a few refresher lessons would help me get back in shape."

"You seem to have a quite lovely shape to me." Nikola said with a cheeky smile causing Abby to blush.

"You're not so bad yourself." She said boldly causing the vampire to stare at her for a minute in surprise before laughing and pulling her in for a half hug.

"Oh you are definitely going to fit in with us." His friends looked at each other knowingly as they giggled at the flirting pair. "That reminds me Luc…you owe me cheesecake."

"Since when do I owe you desserts?" Luc asked incredulously.

"Do I even want to know?" Abby asked.

"I usually try out my recipes on Nikola because he has a major sweet tooth." Luc said with a shrug. "He really likes my cheesecake and always bugs me to make it for him."

"Luc makes the most fantastic desserts you could possibly imagine." Sam said and all the girls nodded in agreement.

"I love his devils food cake. It really is to die for." Alexis said with a dreamy sigh.

"I prefer the cheesecake myself…soooo good." Natasha said with a wistful look on her face.

"Is it really that good?" Abby asked.

"Oh yes. He owns the Crescent Moon Bakery you know." Jade said brightly.

"Really? I love that place. I don't get over there much because it is usually packed and slightly expensive."

"Totally worth it though." Abby nodded in agreement before the conversation drifted off to some other topic.

They chatted, danced and drank for a few more hours before they all decided to leave. Everyone went outside, the girls exchanging phone numbers with Abby and made plans to have lunch next week. Abby shivered in the night air as she was only wearing a tank top. She felt something drape over her shoulder and looked up to see Nikola giving her his jacket.

"Thanks." She said, feeling oddly shy all of a sudden, despite all the earlier flirting.

"No problem." He smiled softly at her. "Anything for a lovely lady."

'_Especially one as lovely as you'_ Nikola thought to himself before he stopped that train of thought abruptly. _'Stop right there Nikola, she's taken. You should not be thinking about her like that.'_

Jade looked at them as they stared at each other and cleared her throat, drawing their gaze away from each other.

"Do you have a ride home Abby?" She asked.

"Um, no. I was just going to catch a cab." She said tucking some hair behind her ear.

"Why doesn't Nikola take you home? It is on the way back for him." Natasha said in an innocent tone causing Nikola to give her an annoyed look before he glanced at Abby to see her reaction.

"Well, if it isn't too much trouble for you." She said with a shy look that made him just want to pull her close and hug her tight.

'_Curb your impulses Nikola.'_ He scolded himself yet again.

"No trouble at all. It would be a absolute pleasure to take you home." He said smoothly and moved closer to her.

"Well, we should be off. Big day tomorrow, lots to do. See ya Abby, bye Nicky." Luc said quickly as he led Sam away, the other girls had drifted off leaving the pair alone in the parking lot. Nikola walked over to his motorcycle and Abby stared at him for a moment before giggling.

"What?" Nikola asked as he got on and handed her the helmet. She took it but was still giggling as she spoke.

"You are really taking the bad boy thing seriously aren't you?"

"Well, who says I'm not a bad boy?" He asked playfully.

"Nah, I don't see it. You're too sweet, though you do pull off the look quite well." She purred out before pulling on the helmet, zipping up the jacket and climbing on behind him. Nikola's breath caught in his throat for a moment as she wrapped her delicate arms around his waist tightly. He had to constantly pull his thoughts away from how nice it felt having her wrapped around him to avoid any accidents as he drove.

They finally got to her house and he shut down the motor. She pulled off the helmet and shook out her hair causing him to stare at her. She looked fantastic wrapped in his leather jacket with her hair slightly ruffled as it fell around her face framing it perfectly and her cheeks slightly pink as she tried to catch her breath.

'_She is gorgeous.'_ Nikola thought before catching himself. '_No Nikola, she is with Will, you cannot think about her like that. It is a shame though that Will doesn't seem to realize what he has in front of him'_

"That was so much fun. I haven't been on a motorcycle in a long time." Abby said slightly breathless, though she knew it wasn't just from the ride but also whom she was riding with.

'_Oh stop it Abby that is just the alcohol talking. Nikola is just a friend. You should not be thinking about how pretty his eyes are or how fantastic he looks in those jeans...Mmm he really does have a nice body under those suits.'_ She shook her head slightly to try and rid herself of such thoughts_. 'Stop thinking like that, he is only a friend.'_

"Is that so?" Nikola asked with that same playful tone he had been using all night. Abby felt sudden unexpected urge to be a bit mischievous towards him. The alcohol must have given her a boost in courage as she glanced at him for a moment, surprised by how just how easy it was for her to flirt with him.

'_Oh what the hell. You only live once.'_ Abby thought as she decided to give into that teasing urge. She spoke in a low, husky tone that immediately drew Nikola's attention to her velvety words.

"Oh yeah, I really miss the feeling of something big and powerful underneath me as I ride all night long until I feel like I can't go any further or faster and all I want to do is collapse from exhaustion completely satisfied with a good, long, hard ride." She said the last few words very slowly, drawing them out as she glanced at Nikola who staring at her with slightly wide eyes and dropped jaw. She grinned cheekily, flicked her hair over her shoulder and she started for her door.

'_Oh great, now I am never going to get that image out of my head. Damn, she is quite a cock tease. Who would have thought such a wildcat lay underneath that shy exterior?'_ Nikola thought with a grin as he caught a whiff of her perfume and shifted slightly before moving after her.

She was a bit surprised that Nikola followed her but she kind of enjoyed the feeling of his hand on her lower back as he led her forward. She unlocked her door and turned to face him. He was staring at her with an intensity that should have been frightening but instead was only making her feel warm, comfortable and incredibly aroused.

Nikola watched as she licked her lips almost nervously and couldn't help but focus his attention on those beautiful pink lips.

'_Damn it…I need to stop thinking like this. I need to stop thinking about those perfect lips and how utterly kissable she looks right now.'_ Nikola felt heat rush through him and gulped as he felt another rush of arousal go through him. _'Oh hell…she is fucking gorgeous. I would just love to see just what is underneath those clothes. Maybe see just how talented a 'rider' she really is… no, no, no Nikola. Bad. She is with someone, so stop thinking like that.'_

They looked at each other and both noticed the darkening of each other's eyes from obvious attraction. They were both leaning toward each other slightly before a loud ringing interrupted them. Nikola pulled away and answered his phone causing Abby to blush in a mixture of disappointment, embarrassment and slight shame because she was dating someone else.

Nikola pocketed his phone after a few moments of conversation and turned to Abby again.

"I have to go." He said softly and she just nodded with a soft smile.

"Thank you for the good time tonight. And for the ride home."

"Anytime you need a ride feel free to call." He said and she smirked at his tone.

"I'll be sure to take you up on that offer sometime." She quipped back at him. "After all, what kind of girl would I be if I turned down a good long ride with a handsome man?" Her smirk got even wider as she saw him blush slightly as he took in her words.

He leaned over and pecked her cheek before he started to pull on his helmet. He turned away and she went inside, both unnoticing of the car that had stopped on the other side of the street and the wide angry eyes of one Will Zimmerman.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I am sorry that this chapter was uploaded so late but my darn imaginary friends refused to talk to me until a couple of days ago and it took that long to get everything typed out the way I wanted it. It turned out a bit longer then I planned...almost twice as long as my other chapters and I'm still not quite sure if I have it quite the way I wanted it but I figured I would post it anyway for everyone being so patient with me and my writers block. So without any further babbling from me...please enjoy.

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><p>Will was seething in anger as he watched some guy lean down, kiss his girlfriend and pull on a helmet. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as the guy hopped on his motorcycle and drove off leaving Abby with a smile as she closed the door behind her. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before he stepped out of his car and made his way to Abby's door.<p>

He knocked and waited a moment before the door opened and Abby stared at him in surprise.

"Will…what are you doing here?" Abby asked in a mixture of confusion and disappointment. She had really hoped that it would be Nikola at the door. She suppressed a sigh of frustration and turned her attention away from thoughts of the sweet, gorgeous man who had flirted with her mere minutes earlier.

"I came to see my girlfriend. Imagine my surprise to find her kissing some other guy." Will said sarcastically causing Abby to frown at him.

"He kissed me on the cheek that's all." Abby said firmly. _'If only his phone hadn't gone off then maybe it could have been a proper kiss.'_ She thought to herself before turning her attention back to her boyfriend.

"Yeah right. Who was that guy anyway?" He asked with a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

'_Oh now he suddenly seems to care about me.'_ Abby thought darkly. "He is just a friend Will."

"It didn't look that way to me. It looked more like you were panting over him like some bitch in heat." Will managed to get the words out before he staggered backwards, barely managing to keep his balance as Abby planted a firm right hook against his jaw. He looked up to find her looking absolutely livid with him.

"William Zimmerman. Are you suggesting I would cheat on someone I am dating? I can't believe you wouldn't trust me when I say that Nicky is just a friend." Abby spoke in a deadly quiet tone. She wasn't the type of person who tended to get louder when angry but instead got intensely quiet. The quieter she got, the more furious she was. And right now she was speaking in a mere whisper. "Get out of here. We can talk tomorrow when I am not drunk or close to pulling out my gun and shooting you."

Will moved forward to try to continue the conversation but at the look on her face quickly nixed the idea. She slammed the door in his face and he winced before getting back into his car and slinking back to the Sanctuary.

Abby in the meantime scowled as she stomped into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. She sat down on the bed and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. It was then she noticed that she was still wearing Nikola's leather jacket. She pulled it close to her face and breathed in the scent of leather, cigarette smoke and something that seemed uniquely Nikola. She pulled off the jacket and gently set it on a chair before changing her clothes.

She pulled out her cell phone and bit her lip for a moment debating with herself before dialing. She waited as the phone rang before being picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Nikola, I'm sorry to call especially with it being so late but I needed to talk to someone."

"What's wrong?"

"Will came by and said a few things that really upset me and I just wanted to…"

"Rant to someone?"

"I shouldn't have bothered you."

"Its no trouble, I can always spare a moment to talk to a beautiful woman." She could hear the flattery in his words and couldn't help but smile. "What did William say that upset you so?"

"He accused me of cheating on him and in his exact words 'panting over him like some bitch in heat.' Then I punched him in the jaw and threatened to shoot him if he didn't leave."

She heard silence for a few minutes and started to worry when his voice came, soft yet firm.

"I am going to kick his ass. He had no right to say such things to a lady. No man should ever treat a lady in such a disgraceful manner." Abby noticed Nikola was starting to sound oddly formal, as he got even more upset.

"Nikola…"

"I should let Sam teach him a lesson in manners. Or maybe Jade…no, she might actually kill him. She is pretty vicious under that sweet exterior and she did kind of adopt you into the group. Really overprotective that one. I know Natasha and Alexis would be more then willing to give him a few reminders about how to treat a lady right…"

"Nikola!" Abby shouted into the phone to stop his ranting. "Calm down. I am going to talk to him tomorrow when we have both cooled off. Do you think you can hold off any ass-kickery until then?"

"I will do my best. But someone should set him straight or he will start to believe this type of behavior is acceptable on a daily basis."

"Nikola?"

"Yes Abby?" Abby tried not to sigh at the way he said her name. She shook her head to push those thoughts out of her head.

"Did you know you start to sound more formal as you get upset?"

"I do?"

"Yeah, you do."

"I never noticed that before."

"It's kind of cute actually." Abby said before she could stop herself. Nikola just chuckled softly.

"Miss Corigan, are you flirting with me?"

"Why Mr. Tesla I believe I am."

"My, my, you are quite the little wild one aren't you?"

"Variety is the spice of life."

"You better make sure you can handle the heat."

"Are you saying I'm hot?"

"And if I am?"

"Then you would be the first." She said bitterly.

"Now Abby I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are a fantastic woman, sweet, smart, funny, not just gorgeous but sexy without even trying. You are the kind of woman that men should be falling over to try to date and if William can't see just how wonderful and special you are then he does not deserve you in the slightest. And if anyone tells you different then they are lying."

"You really are sweet, a terrible liar but sweet." She said with a sniff as she wiped away a tear. No one had ever said anything so heartfelt and sweet to her before.

"I would never lie to a woman like that, especially not you. I would never lie to **you** about something like that. Besides, my friends are always teasing me for being a terrible liar, which is actually true."

She giggled as they continued chatting for a few hours before they both hung up to get some sleep.

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><p>The next day Abby found herself outside the Sanctuary doors waiting for someone to let her inside. The door opened to reveal…<p>

"Nikola." Abby said somewhat surprised as he lean against the doorframe with a sly smile on his face. It reminded her of a playful cat albeit one in a form fitting suit.

"Well, well, if it isn't my favorite FBI agent. Whatever are you doing here this fine day?" Nikola asked, as he looked her over. She was wearing an emerald green tank top, a simple black pencil skirt and black knee high boots with a thin 3-inch heel. What caught his attention though was the fact she was wearing his leather jacket over top the entire ensemble.

'_Well, doesn't she look delectable? I wonder what else of mine she would look good in?'_ Nikola thought to himself having given up on trying to keep his thoughts PG around her.

"I came to talk to Will if he's still alive for me to speak with." She said with a mischievous smile. "Are you going to let me in?"

"He's is unfortunately still alive despite my overwhelming desire to kill him slowly for what he said to you. Now what do I get if I do let you inside?" Nikola asked, curious to know what her answer would be.

Abby leaned closer to him and tilted her head to the side slightly as though thinking about the answer. She traced a hand in a seemingly absent manner along her neck and down slightly to her cleavage before slowly dragging her hand upward again. He caught a whiff of her perfume as she leaned closer to him with a cute pout as though to answer and quickly ducked under his arm and slipped inside before he could even blink.

He turned around to find her smirking at him with arms crossed over her chest.

"That is just cheating Miss Corigan." Nikola said as he shut the door behind him.

"Fair's fair." She said with a giggle at his put out expression.

"You are quite the minx aren't you? How does Will not realize what a little hellion he has on his hands?"

"Maybe he just wasn't the right one to let her out play."

"Oh really? And who is the right one?" Nikola asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Before Nikola could answer Will came down the stairs to greet Abby. Nikola just said goodbye and slunk off to do some repairs on the damaged section in the lower levels.

"Hey Abby." Will hugged Abby and kissed her cheek. She couldn't help but smile slightly though it faded somewhat as she caught the slight scent of perfume on Will's shirt before he pulled away. "I guess we should have that talk huh?"

"Yeah I think so." She said coolly causing Will to flinch slightly.

"My office is upstairs, we can talk there." Will led her to his office and shut the door behind them as Abby took a seat.

"Abby…" Will started to speak just as Abby did.

"Will…" They both looked at each other for a moment. "You go first." Abby said and Will shifted looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Abby, I just want to start off by saying I am really sorry about the way I acted last night. It may have been a long stress filled night for me but that is no excuse whatsoever for my words and my behavior." He paused for a moment to draw in a breath. "Abby, you know that I care about you right?"

"Yeah…" She said slowly, not liking where this seemed headed.

"I was driving home last night when I came to a sudden realization about why I was so upset last night. I had been watching the two of you together and I noticed just how at ease you were with him and I saw how you looked at him."

"Will, I-" He held up a hand to stop her in mid sentence.

"I realized suddenly that I wasn't upset because you were with another man…I was upset that you may have found the right one." Abby just looked at him completely shocked and slightly sceptical as he continued to speak.

"Abby, you are a wonderful woman who deserves so much more then I can offer. With all that goes on around here I am amazed we even manage to spend time together and when we do, our dates usually don't turn out well for one of us. I care about you Abby, I really do but I don't think we are right for each other." Will said and fell silent leaving Abby to absorb his words. She was quiet for several minutes before she looked him in the eyes.

"That is such a load of bullshit. Who is she?" She asked emotionlessly.

"What?" Will asked slightly startled at her question.

"Who is she? The woman you're sleeping with?" Abby asked again insistently.

"I'm not sleeping with anyone."

"So you just happen to smell like another woman's soap and perfume? I work for the FBI Will. I am trained to notice these types of things. So how long have you been screwing around behind my back?"

"It wasn't like that Abby." Will tried to explain before Abby cut him off sharply.

"Then try to explain away the hickey on your neck." She said and Will's hand went to his neck reflexively.

"I'm sorry Abby, really it was just a one time thing…"

"Save it Will. I am not interested in your excuses. We are no longer together and from now on I don't want to see you again unless it is work related." She said shortly as she stood up and went to the door. "You fucked up big time William Zimmerman." She said before walking out the door.

She strolled down the corridor until she was out of sight and closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to hold back her tears. She opened her eyes after a few moments and she exhaled deeply feeling much calmer then she was after the little interaction. She laughed suddenly to herself as she realized she was now single again.

'_Now you have no excuses not to go after Nikola Abby.'_ She thought to herself and blushed as she realized exactly what she was considering. _'Come on, he is gorgeous, sweet and definitely into you, just go for it.'_

"Why the hell not? Could be fun." She muttered to herself as she shook her hair loose from its ponytail and headed off to find a certain scientist.

Nikola was sitting in a chair at one of the work tables trying to salvage some data from the fried hard drives in one of the labs when he noticed her in the doorway. He paused what he was doing as he saw Abby wearing his leather jacket and looking sinfully good in it too.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company Miss Corigan?" Nikola asked playfully. He saw her grin widen as she stepped into the room, heels clacking on the floor as she moved closer to him until she was mere inches away, leaning on the table next to him.

"I wanted to see you. And it's Abby." She said tilting her head slightly to the side as she spoke with an innocent tone that made him suddenly wary.

"So…um…why did you want to see me?" He asked suddenly nervous though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

"So I could do this." She said as she hiked her skirt up enough so she could straddle his waist and pull him in for a deep kiss. Nikola froze as her soft lips met his forcefully. He realized what he was doing and gently yet regretfully pushed her away.

"What about Will?" He asked.

"What about him?" She asked as she started nipping on his neck distracting him slightly.

"You're dating him."

"We broke up since he was cheating on me."

"So I'm the rebound?" He asked coolly. She gave him a look and shook her head.

"No. I wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Before I was even with Will I wanted you." She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. "And you know what I wanted?"

"What?" He asked breathlessly and she could see his eyes were almost black with lust, only a small ring of bright blue visible to her. She smirked as she saw his reaction to her and pressed herself closer to him.

"I wanted to fuck you the moment I met you. I wanted to shove you down and start riding you right then and there until neither of us could handle it any longer and we simply collapsed from pleasure." Nikola closed his eyes as her words assaulted him. He could feel her warm breath tickling his neck and he couldn't hold back a moan from the images she presented. She ran a hand through his hair lovingly before she gripped tightly to short locks causing his eyes to snap open as he whimpered softly at the painful sensation.

"I wanted you then and I want you now. Can I have you Nikola? Can I take you right here where anyone can walk in and see us? Can I make you feel so good that it hurts and you can't stand it another second yet you absolutely crave more?" She breathed out in a husky voice that made Nikola moan with desire.

"Yes, God yes Abby." He managed to breath out before he found himself being pulled over to the couch. He was shoved down forcefully and she straddled him again, pulling down his fly as she did so. He absently noted that she wasn't wearing any underwear underneath her skirt and put that aside to ponder over later when he wasn't so distracted. His mind was still reeling and trying to catch up so he didn't even notice when she pulled him out and put a condom on him before aligning herself. He did however notice when she started sinking down on top of him causing him to moan loudly at the tight heat encasing him.

"Fuck, Abby." He managed to breath out and she just leered at him as she started to lift herself up.

"That's the idea sweetie." She said before she started riding him in earnest. Nikola found himself unable to concentrate on anything except how fucking gorgeous Abby looked with her head thrown back eyes closed as she rode him into oblivion. He gripped her hips tightly as he thrust as best he could from their position and groaned when he felt a dainty hand grip his hair tight and pull him up slightly. He mewled at the painful sensation of his hair being almost ripped out, sharp nails digging into his scalp and only felt even more turned on by the action. He moaned and pulled his head forward slightly causing even more pain. He looked at her smirking down at him with a wicked knowing look on her face. He was close and he knew she knew it because the grip tightened further and pulled him closer until they were almost eye-to-eye.

"Abby." Nikola begged softly as she slowed her actions down, deliberately teasing him.

"I like the way you say my name." Abby purred out as she enjoyed the sight of the man below her completely under her control. He was so gorgeous as he squirmed around begging for her to continue offering him pain and pleasure. She had forgotten just how amazing it was to have someone so needy for her, to have someone beg and plead for all she could possibly offer. It was an intoxicating sensation to know that she was capable of driving this controlled man into becoming little more then a quivering mess underneath her.

"Please, Abby, please." Nikola was pleading he needed something, anything from her as he was so desperate to finish.

"Please what? What do you want Niko?" She asked as his hands gripped her waist with almost bruising force and she hoped it would leave a mark, just a little reminder of their time.

"Stop teasing, please Abby."

"Since you asked so nicely." She sighed out and picked up the pace again until he arched into her with a scream as he came. She felt the build up of pressure and quickened her pace until she came as well, her head thrown back as she moaned loudly and her actions finally stilled. They were silent for a few moments, trying to catch their breath after what happened. Then she got off of him, pulled off the condom and tucked him away. She tossed the used condom into the trash before straightening her clothes and smoothing her skirt of any wrinkles. She reached into the pocket of her jacket to pull out the panties she had taken off before she walked in and tucked them into Nikola's pocket before kissing him and heading for the door.

"Keep them. And maybe next time I can finally see just all of what lies under those suits of yours." She said in a husky voice with a wink before she turned the corner and disappeared from his sight.

"Fuck." Nikola said as he sat up and ran a hand through his hair absently as he tried to process all that had happened moments ago.

"Fuck." He said again without noticing Henry had entered the room. The moment the werewolf entered the room he almost dropped his computer tablet, as he immediately knew what happened by the overwhelming scent in the room.

"What the fuck?" Henry asked with wide eyes causing Nikola to look at him in surprise as though he didn't even realize Henry had entered the room.

'_Abby and Nikola. Abby and Nikola. Will is going to freak if he finds out.' _Henry thought as he tried to ignore the strong scent of sex in the room.

"I'm sure as a werewolf you can already tell what happened Henry." Nikola said without any hint of sarcasm, which caused Henry to worry slightly.

"Abby. You and Abby. **You** and Will's girlfriend." Henry just sputtered for a moment not knowing what to say.

"Apparently they broke up." Nikola said quietly.

"So you decide to fuck her just after they broke up? Dude what the fuck?"

"I didn't do a fucking thing. She started the whole thing." Nikola snapped out. "I wasn't expecting a fucking blitz attack from her. She is really strong willed. Probably why Jade likes her." Nikola muttered and Henry realized that Nikola was just as surprised by what happened as he was.

"Oh…so…have you managed to get anything off of those damaged hard drives?" Henry asked in an attempt to try and forget what he had just learned.

"Most of the data was salvageable though I am still working on that last one." Nikola said grateful to get off the topic and onto work. "It should be done in a few hours."

"Alright then. I'm going now. Have fun with that." Henry said and left as quickly as possible, not even noticing Will just around the corner having heard every word of their conversation.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Sorry to everyone for taking so long with this but one of my friends was incredibly depressed so I decided to spend some time with her to try and cheer her up. Anyway, I am back and hopefully will be able to finish up my next chapter and have it posted sooner then I did this one. Thank you everyone for being so patient with me.

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><p>Nikola was leaving the lab several hours later to hand over the retrieved data to Henry when he hit the floor hard as a fist struck his face, knocking him off balance before he could catch himself. He rubbed his jaw and looked up into the furious face of Will who jerked him to his feet by the collar of his shirt and shoved him roughly into the wall. Nikola was so surprised that he didn't even consider pushing the other man away.<p>

"Did you finally snap and turn homicidal?" Nikola asked, blinking owlishly. Will paused at that and gave him a strange look.

"What?"

"You look like a psychopath at the moment. Then again you usually look that way so it is difficult to tell." Nikola knew baiting the man wasn't a very good idea especially given the dark look on his face but damn if it wasn't fun to see his reactions. He knew he was successful at getting under the doctors skin when he got another surprisingly forceful punch, which broke his nose.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Nikola said wincing as he felt the cartilage and bone fuse back together swiftly. _'Thank god for vampire healing.'_

"You fucking deserved that for screwing my girlfriend."

"Oh joy its that time of week again where everything is my fault." Nikola said in a mock cheerful tone, which only served to piss Will off even more.

"When the hell isn't it your fault? You're like a fucking bad penny." Will started to punch him again but Nikola grabbed his wrist and in an elegant move, twisted Will's arm down and behind his back. He then whirled around so he was behind him and shoved the man face first into the wall. He kept a tight grip on Will's wrist as the doctor struggled to get free and kept his weight against him so he didn't have any leverage to move.

"Let me go Tesla or I swear…"

"What? You'll go crying to mommy about how the big bad vampire beat you up and had incredible sex with your willing **ex**-girlfriend?" Nikola said mockingly as he let go and stepped away. When Will had turned around he was yet again shoved against the wall with enough force to make his head swim. This time however, he was facing a vampire whose claws were digging tight enough into his neck to draw a few drops of blood. "Now William…I think we need to talk."

"Fuck off. I have nothing to say to you except stay away from Abby."

"What if she doesn't want to stay away from me?" Nikola asked with a smirk.

"Like she would ever want someone like you in her life?" Will spat out as claws tightened, cutting off his air slightly and cutting into his neck. Will felt the small rivulets of blood going down his neck and dripping over the slim, taloned fingers of the vampire, whose grip hadn't wavered in the slightest during their conversation.

"Don't presume to have any say in anything that Abby does. She is her own woman and she more then capable of making her own decisions without a jealous ex-boyfriend in the mix. And you know nothing about me boy." He said coldly causing Will to shiver in fear as he seemed to realize for the first time that he was facing a very deadly being who could and **would** kill him if he choose too. Nikola dropped his hands away from Will's throat and stepped back from him.

"I would recommend you leave now before I conveniently forget that I don't feed on humans." Will looked into pitch black eyes and quickly decided he would be better off if he avoided the vampire, at least for the time being. He rushed off down the hallway leaving Nikola alone to try and calm himself.

It took several minutes but he managed to calm down enough to grab the fallen laptop and head down to Henry's lab to hand over the information.

"You ok?" Henry asked the vampire who looked incredibly irritated as he handed over the data. Nikola just waved off his concerns.

"I'm fine. Just William being his usual annoying self."

"Ah." Henry just nodded in understanding. Will and Nikola had never really gotten along so it wasn't a surprise they would be at each other's throats again. Though he didn't realize that it was in a literal manner today. "So nothing unusual then?"

Nikola just gave Henry a half smile and a nod before he started for the door.

"Oh by the way, Magnus just got back about a half hour ago and she wants to see you."

"Probably for my weekly lecture." Nikola mumbled in annoyance as he headed upstairs to Helen's office. He heard Will yelling loudly at Helen as he approached and sighed to himself.

'_Why do I have the feeling that I will get yelled at yet again because of that moron?' _Nikola rounded the corner and headed into the office reluctantly and slightly cautiously.

The young doctor looked furious and was staring at Nikola as though he were contemplating the odds of his survival if he attacked the vampire again.

"What did I do this time?" Nikola asked wearily. He watched Will carefully, keeping an eye out for any kind attempt to attack him.

"Nikola, I think we need to talk." Helen said slowly, motioning him to sit down. He did so with narrowed eyes. Whenever Helen used that tone on him it meant he was about to be lectured for something he most likely didn't do.

"You should consider keeping your protégé on a leash. Or at least muzzle him. I could hear him all the way down the hall. We wouldn't want him scaring anyone now would we?" Nikola sneered out coolly. Will started towards him angrily but was held back by Helen.

"Nikola." Helen scowled at the vampire and Nikola sighed in annoyance. "Will, could you give me a moment with Nikola?" Will nodded reluctantly and left the room with a glare, leaving the two immortals alone.

"What?" Nikola snapped out after a few minutes of Helen staring disapprovingly in silence at him.

"Will came to me a few minutes ago and told me about the conversation you and Henry had several hours ago."

"Conversation, what…oh." Nikola said in sudden understanding. "What about it?"

"Nikola, you had sex with Will's girlfriend…"

"Ex- girlfriend." Helen continued as though he hadn't interrupted.

"…when she was obviously in an emotional state. You took advantage of her when she was vulnerable Nikola. I know you are capable of many things but I never thought you would ever sink so low…"

"How dare you…how dare you even think that I would ever take advantage of a woman in such a despicable manner. I would never treat a woman so disrespectfully and the fact that you would think that I would do so sickens me." He was standing in front of her before she could blink with fists clenched at his sides and eyes flaring at the accusations she was throwing at him.

"Nikola, what am I supposed to think when Will comes to me with something like this? That isn't even mentioning the fact that you injured him." Helen said and Nikola had to hold back the sudden urge to unleash his claws on her.

"Perhaps you should try asking the one accused of doing such things to explain his side of the story before you decide to jump to conclusions. And William had it coming for being an irritating little prick." He stated coolly trying to calm himself down.

"Well what happened then?"

"Abby jumped me." Nikola said shortly causing Helen to look at him skeptically.

"I highly doubt Abby would do something like that." Nikola just laughed agitatedly as he felt his control slipping away inch by inch. His shoulders were shaking as he looked up at Helen with shockingly cold eyes.

"Helen, I love you dearly, so please know that when I say this I mean it with all sincerity…shut the fuck up. You have no idea what the hell you are talking about and I do not need to put up with this constant abuse of yours any longer. This isn't about what happened between Abby and myself. It isn't even about what happened with William and we both know it." She started to open her mouth but he held up a hand to prevent her speaking.

"I am not finished yet so if you would be kind enough to wait until I've had my say, I would most appreciate it. I have spent the past 150 years putting up with your shit because you are my friend. I have always done as you asked, no questioning and all I have ever gotten for my troubles is your scorn, your complete and utter disdain for me, the way I do things, the way I act. I have let you manipulate me time and time again, I have put up with your constant verbal and physical abuse. I have let you shoot me, repeatedly I might mention, verbally harass and threaten me numerous times and I am sick of it. I am sick of being treated like everything that happens in this damned Sanctuary is always my fault and I am more then a little annoyed at constantly being treated like a fucking juvenile delinquent." He paced as he continued his ranting.

"I know you don't care for me that much, it is rather obvious from your behavior that you only do care when you need something from me. I have fucking let it go in the past because I didn't want to lose one of the few friends I had. It was so pathetic to realize in Oxford that the others of our group were the only friends I ever really had even though they barely tolerated me themselves. Even then it was only because you could all use my intelligence, that any of you even let me stick around, but through all of that I had always considered you all to be my friends. You however, knew of my feelings for you and quickly learned how easily manipulated I could be and you made sure to use that to your advantage. But you aren't my friends, well perhaps James and maybe Nigel on occasion was but the rest of the time you never truly were, especially you."

Nikola looked at her suddenly and she felt a chill run through her spine, as his icy blue eyes seemed to pierce into her own.

"You only ever contact me when you need something done or you want to make sure I haven't tried to blow up the world or something along those lines. And don't even think of trying to claim you care either because if you did you would have known about my friends and how they seem to care far more then you do. You would have contacted me sometime during those sixty years after my supposed 'death'. You would have come to my wedding, to which I did send you an invitation." He grew quieter as he spoke his next few words.

"You would have known about my wife's death and been there for me at her funeral. You would have seen through my façade in Rome and known that I needed help. I needed my best friend who completely and totally rejected me without even asking why I was so unstable. You know me better then anyone and you know I would never have gone so far in my experiments unless something major had happened and I didn't know how to cope. And then I find out how you really felt about me and I felt my world completely shatter that day." Nikola paused for a moment in his monologue and Helen could see his eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

"Well, then. Guess I can tell you that, at Oxford… No one liked you." Nikola said in a surprisingly accurate mimicry of Helen's voice, which caused her to flinch as she recalled her words in the catacombs of Rome. ''I didn't think much upon those words until later. And you know what I remember thinking? Why on earth would you say something like that to someone you call a friend unless you truly meant it in some way, shape or form? It just made me realize what I should have long ago…we aren't friends and I don't think we ever were. I must have been fooling myself into believing otherwise or I would have realized it long ago and without the help of my therapist."

"Nikola…" Helen started but Nikola continued as though she hadn't even tried to speak.

"You are as bad as Afina, if not worse." Helen looked at him in shock.

"If you don't get your way then you manage to figure out some way to manipulate a situation until it turns out in your favor. You want what you want when you want it and heaven help whoever gets in the way of your goals. You have no problem luring people into your little web of lies until they get so tangled up that they can't even see the mess you've gotten them into and you use that to make them do what you want." He paused for a second to catch his breath before he spat out his next words in an acidic tone.

"You are even more vampire then me, what with your little quest for world domination and your methods for achieving it. You may not want to dominate the human world but you sure as hell want to control the Abnormal world. You might claim it is to protect them and keep them safe from the humans who want to destroy them and maybe that is true, but you also like the power that comes with that kind of control. You like the fact that you are completely in charge, and that everyone will bend to your every whim if you say it is for a good enough cause. I may be vampire physically, but you are pure vampire in mind and personality."

Nikola sat down suddenly and his shoulders slumped, as his rant seemed to be nearing its end.

"And that is why I am considering leaving. I think I am going to be completely and utterly selfish for once in my fucking 150-year life. I am not going to tolerate this from you any more. It took me a while to realize that what I need to protect myself from…is you. My friends are constantly telling me that you are dangerous to me, that you are a poison and you will destroy me before I can even notice and you know what? They're right. Ever since we met up in Rome I have felt like I have been torn apart little by little every time we are near each other. I have to leave while there is still something left of me to save. I have to protect myself from you. Our relationship is completely toxic and will eat away until there is nothing left of either of us. I could never bear to see that happen to you because despite all you've done to me I still care for you. I care for you greatly Helen, as though you were my own sister and I will never fail to come to your aid if you ask it of me, but I have to think of myself for once."

Once finished with his tirade he stood up and looked at Helen for a brief moment before turning away. She noticed a single tear fall down his cheek and his shoulders shaking slightly as he left the room without another word. He went straight to his room and locked the door behind him as he fell down onto his bed and for the first time in years, he allowed himself to cry.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I am on a roll tonight, lack of sleep seems to be doing me good writing wise. On a side note, this chapter was going to end up way to long if I continued it so I found a good stopping point to split it up. I couldn't decide what to use for the first flashback so I eventually decided on what you see here. Hope the scene is ok despite being a little long.

* * *

><p>Nikola cried for a good hour before he managed to calm down enough to change out of his suit and into a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt. He pulled on a pair of worn Converse and a hoodie. He checked to make sure his phone and wallet were in his pockets before making his way downstairs and outside. He stopped at a flower shop for a few minutes before he continued on his walk.<p>

Nikola walked for a good half hour before he came upon his destination…the cemetery. He walked through the rows of headstones until he reached the one he was looking for. He brushed away a few leaves that had accumulated and sat down cross-legged before the headstone. He sighed softly and lowered his head as he gently placed the flowers he brought on the ground. He remained silent for a few minutes before looking up with teary eyes.

"Hey. I know it's been a while but I just needed to talk. I just need to get a few things off my chest." He paused for a few minutes as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"Happy Birthday by the way. I miss you. I wish you were here now. You always knew what to do and now I feel like I'm lost at sea. I don't know what to do anymore. I know that I have my friends but it isn't the same. It just feels like everything is going to hell these days and maybe it is. I just wish I could hold you one more time, hear your voice again."

"I don't think I will ever forgive myself for what happened. Jade really has been helpful in helping me realize the accident wasn't my fault. It doesn't hurt any less but I am doing much better. I know it's been eleven years but I still feel can't help but feel guilty. I should have been there for you when you needed me."

"You couldn't have known what was going to happen." Nikola looked up as Luc stepped closer, placing a small bouquet of flowers by the headstone. Luc touched the cold stone and looked at the inscription with sad eyes.

_**Katarina Vesper Tesla**_

_**April 22, 1970 – July 2, 2000**_

_**The star that shines the brightest is the first to fade away.**_

Luc sat next to Nikola in the grass and the vampire looked at him as tears rolled freely down his face.

"I should have been there for her."

"You couldn't have known what would happen." Luc said again. "There is nothing that you could have done for her. At least you were with her at the end. She died peaceful in your arms. I think that's more then most people in such a situation get."

"I guess. It doesn't make it any easier though."

"When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure. As long as we continue to remember her, she will always be alive. It won't stop the pain we feel but it makes it easier."

"You know how we first met?" Nikola asked quietly after they spent a few minutes in comfortable silence.

"No."

"She hit me with her car."

"Seriously?"

"I was walking to my car when she turned the corner and before either of us could react, she hit me."

"Interesting first meeting."

"You know, the first moment I saw her…I knew that she was the one, I just knew I was going to marry that woman. I didn't care that I probably would never see her again."

"But you did."

"Yeah, the next day on the way to your wedding. We ended up next to each other on the plane."

"Ok, that is just…"

"Weird right? Once we married she would always say that it must have been fate to meet that day."

"On the way to my wedding?"

"Yeah."

"Huh." Luc looked over at Nikola who was smiling and had wiped the tears away. "You know, I honestly never thought I would see you married to her. Not that you weren't great together but I thought you never wanted to settle down. Imagine my surprise when you did after a year of dating."

"I would have done anything for that woman."

"Including having a hand fasting ceremony as opposed to something more traditional."

"We both decided on it actually. Did not actually expect her to want you to officiate the wedding though."

"I wasn't expecting it either. The wedding was beautiful though."

"It was." Nikola said with a wistful smile on his face as he remembered that day.

* * *

><p><em>Nikola stood in the center of the circle as friends and family stood waiting for the bride. He was honestly a bit surprised to see that James Watson had accepted his invitation, agreed to speak for him and hold one of the rings. He was disappointed to find Helen had not come as he had hoped she would be here for such an important day.<em>

_He plucked at the material of his shirt as he nervously chewed his lip. He was wearing a crisp blood red shirt first two buttons undone and tucked into well-pressed black slacks. Nikola's shoulder length brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a few strands escaping to fall around his face, mostly into his eyes. Nikola huffed in annoyance as he tried to push one of the strands out of his eyes for the fifth time in as many minutes._

"_Why I ever allowed my hair to get this long I will never know." Nikola muttered mostly to himself._

"_You let it get so long because Katarina liked it."_

"_I know that Luc." Nikola sighed irritably._

"_Hey, don't take your nervousness out on me buster."_

"_Sorry. It's just…I never thought this day would come. I never thought I would be getting married with my best friend officiating the ceremony."_

"_Are you sure you want me doing this? It isn't too late to find someone else." Luc said slightly anxiously._

"_We both want you to do this. I can't think of anyone better for this."_

"_I really hope your faith in me isn't misplaced."_

"_Me too." Nikola muttered as he heard the music start and his bride come towards him. Nikola's breath caught in his throat as he saw her walk towards him, a vision in a flowing white silk dress with a delicate red vine pattern stitching around the hem, sleeves and neck. Her dark red hair flowing freely down her back in soft waves, framing the delicate features of her face as well as showing off her dark emerald green eyes and golden tan skin. She reached Nikola and stood beside him, never once taking her eyes off of him as Luc started speaking._

"_We have come here together this day to celebrate the joyful union of two souls in the bonds of marriage. There is much that can be said about the wonders of joining together two people bound by the mysterious power that is love. For without love the joys of life are worth nothing. Without the wonder of love we can find no redemption in death. Love lies before us in life and follows us in death. It is the beginning of the creation of all and if we learn nothing else from life, let this be the lesson we always take with us as we wander the winding paths before us in our lifetimes." Luc licked his lips and drew a deep breath before continuing. It was nerve wracking to be officiating his best friends wedding and he really didn't want to screw it up._

"_Marriage is a bond that one enters only after considerable thought and reflection. As with anything, life is filled with its ups and downs, trials and triumphs. It is with this understanding that Katarina and Nikola have come before us today to bind themselves to one another." Luc's attention had been towards everyone but now it was focused completely on the couple in front of him._

"_Nikola, Katarina, you have both come here today as individuals. You have come to join yourselves in a new life of unity and love. You have come here before your family and friends to share the joy of your pairing. You have come before us to allow the honor of seeing two halves of the same soul become whole once more." Luc paused for a moment at the two smiling brightly at one another._

"_Some would ask who would give this bride in marriage, but a woman is the property of none. She is not something that can be bought or sold, neither given nor taken by any but herself. Because of this I ask if she comes before us of her own free will and if she bears her family's blessing this day. Katarina, do you find yourself here today of your own free will and accord?"_

"_I do." She said without hesitation._

"_Who comes with you and with what blessings?"_

"_I, her father, accompany her and she has the blessings of her entire family." Her father stepped forward as he spoke before stepping back._

"_And you Nikola, are you here today of your own will?"_

"_I am." Nikola said never once taking his eyes off his soon to be wife._

"_Who accompanies you and with what blessings?"_

"_I accompany him as friend and brother with blessings of those he holds dearest." James stepped forward and spoke before returning to his place._

"_For those unaware, the bride and groom have chosen to do a hand fasting ceremony to bind themselves today. In Europe until the mid 1700's very few unions were sanctified in a church but instead celebrated by a very simple hand fasting ceremony in which two partners joined hands over a village anvil, in fields or groves of trees. Will the bride and groom please link their hands now in the form of an infinity circle?" Nikola and Katarina clasped their hands together and Luc continued speaking._

"_The circle represents the unending love and partnership you will share with one another. Before we go further, know that you have formed ties between one another since you first crossed paths with each other. As you choose to enter the state of matrimony you must strive to make the ideals that give meaning to the ceremony and institute of marriage real. It is with full awareness that within this circle you not only declare your intent to be hand fasted before your friends and family but also before God. The promises and ties bound today will strengthen your union. They will cross through the years and lives of your soul's growth. Do you still seek to enter this ceremony?"_

"_We do." They both said as one as they stared into each other's eyes. Luc put a hand over the pairs clasped hands and spoke to them with a smile on his face._

"_These hands are the hands that will love passionately and cherish you through the years for a lifetime of happiness. These hands will countless times wipe the tears, both of joy and of sorrow, from your eyes. These hands will comfort in illness, hold tightly when fear or grief grips your mind. These hands will hold firmly through difficult times. These are the hands that will offer support and encouragement to follow your hopes and dreams. Together, you can realize and achieve anything you set your minds to." Luc pulled away from them for a moment to retrieve the long red cord on the table beside him._

"_Many years ago hands would be bound with whatever material was available, today we will use this cord to symbolize the binding of your promises to one another. __Nikola, will you be Katarina's faithful partner for life?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Katarina, will you be Nikola's faithful partner for life?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Will you be each other's constant companions, dear friends and one true love?"_

"_Yes." They both said as one._

"_And so the binding is made." He wrapped the cord around the couple's wrists one time. _

"_Katarina, do you promise to love Nikola without reservation?" _

"_Yes."_

"_Nikola, do you promise to love Katarina without reservation?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Will both of you stand by one another in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want?" _

"_Yes." _

"_And so the binding is made." He wrapped the cord around their wrists a second time._

"_Katarina, will you stand together with Nikola in times of joy and sorrow?" _

"_I will."_

"_Nikola, will you stand together with Katarina in times of joy and sorrow?" _

"_I will."_

"_Will you share the burdens of each so that your spirits may grow in this union?" _

"_Yes, we will." _

"_And so the binding is made." The cord was wrapped around the couple's wrist for a third time. _

"_Nikola will you always be open and honest with Katarina, for as long as you both shall live?" _

"_Yes." _

"_Katarina, will you always be open and honest with Nikola, for as long as you both shall live?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Will you dream together to create new realities and hopes for this marriage?" _

"_Yes." _

"_And so the binding is made." The cord is wrapped around the couple's wrist for the fourth time. _

"_Katarina, Will you honor this man?" _

"_I will." _

"_Nikola, Will you honor this woman?" _

"_I will." _

"_Will you both seek to cherish and strengthen that honor?" _

"_We will." _

"_And so the binding is made." The cord is wrapped around the couple's wrist for the fifth and final time._

"_The cords you see here do not form the knots of this binding. Instead it is your vows to one another that truly bind you for only you hold in your hands the making or breaking of this union." Luc removed the cord as he spoke and placed it on the table before continuing._

"_Who holds the rings?" _

"_We do." Luc's wife Samantha and James said holding up the rings to be blessed._

"_These rings are not just simple circles but symbols that remind us of the Sun, Earth and universe. They are symbols of holiness, perfection and peace. That which has no beginning or end, so let us in this moment bring our blessing to these rings. May the love that Nikola and Katarina have for each other be as unending as these rings. Let us bless these rings that the Bride and Groom will wear for the rest of their lives as an expression of their love for one another. Let us send them our prayers, thoughts and love so they may always carry our love with them as well." _

"_Now if you will both exchange rings and state for each, 'With this ring, I thee wed, let it ever be a symbol of my love.' " The rings were handed to the couple, both of which looked at each other smiling brightly._

"_With this ring, I thee wed, let it ever be a symbol of my love." Nikola said as he slipped the ring onto Katarina's finger._

"_With this ring, I thee wed, let it ever be a symbol of my love." Katarina said as she followed suit and slipped the ring onto his finger._

_Luc handed over a goblet of wine to Nikola who took it and turned to Katarina._

"_May you drink your fill from the cup of love." Luc said as __Nikola held the goblet to Katarina as she sipped before she then took the goblet and held it to Nikola as he sipped. The goblet was then handed back to Luc who set it on the table next to the cord._

"_No power vested in me by the state can grant me the authority to make what both your souls already know to be true. Only you both can make and seal the promise of marriage to one another and only you can bind it. And now that you, Nikola and Katarina have announced to your friends and family the truths already written in your hearts…we observe joyfully that you are now husband and wife."_

"_I present to you Mr. Nikola Tesla and Mrs. Katarina Vesper Tesla."_

_Everyone applauded as the two kissed and turned to face everyone._

"_I love you." Katarina said to Nikola as they left for the party._

"_Not as much as I love you." He whispered in her ear in return._

* * *

><p>"I'm still surprised that I didn't screw it up considering how nervous I was." Luc said as Nikola turned to him.<p>

"That was your first wedding wasn't it?"

"Yeah and like I said, I can't believe I didn't screw up."

"You were great sweetie." Came a voice behind them. They looked around to see Sam and Jade standing a few feet away.

"I was a terrified wreck dear." Sam just smiled and sat next to him, Jade following suit by sitting next to Nikola.

"How are you Nikola?" Jade asked. Nikola chewed on his lip for a moment before turning to her.

"I'm…doing ok. I can't help but blame myself for what happened to her though."

"Nikola, it wasn't your fault." Jade said putting a hand on his arm. He pulled away and lowered his head.

"I was supposed to drive her to her appointment but I got stuck at work. She said she would be fine to drive herself. Next thing I know, I'm getting a phone call at work telling me my wife is in the ER because her car crashed."

"You didn't know what would happen. No one expects these things to happen."

"You don't get it Jade." Nikola snapped out. "I can never forgive myself for what happened. I will never forgive myself for not being there when she needed me."

"Why?" Jade asked softly.

"Because she was pregnant."


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I split this chapter into two parts because it just didn't flow right the way I had it previously written. I know the chapter is shorter then my others but I hope to make up for it by posting both this and chapter eight at the same time. That having been said, I hope everyone enjoys the chapters.

* * *

><p>"She was pregnant? Why didn't you say something?" Jade asked.<p>

"I never told anyone about it. I-I couldn't deal. I guess that was when my Black Crystal addiction started." Nikola mumbled the last sentence causing Sam to look at him.

"Ok for those of us who do not know what the hell Black Crystal is an explanation would be nice."

"Black crystal is a drug specifically tailored for Abnormals with fast healing abilities or very quick metabolisms. It slows down their healing to an almost human level while simultaneously giving them an intense high. The more drugs in their system the more their healing slows and the longer the drug will stay in their system giving them even longer highs. The high of Black crystal is hard to explain to someone who hasn't actually used it. The effects are…it's kind of like a terrifying mixture of Heroin, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, LSD, and a little bit of Abnormal added to the mixture. Not a good drug to get addicted to." Luc said in a swift manner.

"How do you know this?" Sam asked.

Luc opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again before speaking.

"Long, long, long, long, long, loooooong story." He said quickly. Sam just pursed her lips at him and gave him a look that said they would talk about it later.

"By the way Nikola, if you ever even think about using that stuff again I will kick your ass." Luc said firmly causing Nikola to nod.

"I know."

"I never want to see you like that again." Nikola winced as he recalled his behavior and what he had put his friend through.

* * *

><p><em>Luc waited patiently as Nikola finally answered the door. He had to do a double take at the man before him. Nikola had cut his hair short. He was ghostly pale, eyes bloodshot and had the beginnings of a beard. His clothes were rumpled and messy. He had a bottle of alcohol in one hand, a cigarette in the other.<em>

"_What do you want?" Nikola snapped out as he gripped the doorframe, trying to steady himself._

"_I came to check on you."_

"_I'm fine. Go away."_

"_No Nikola. I am not going to go away." Nikola just rolled his eyes and went back inside leaving the door wide open. Luc stepped inside, closed the door behind him and looked at Nikola who was…_

"_Nikola! What the fuck? Is that heroin?" Nikola looked up at Luc from the couch where he was about to inject himself with something._

"_Black Crystal. Works much better then that shit." Luc rushed over and grabbed the syringe from his hand and tossed it across the room. Nikola cried out and started to get up but Luc shoved him back down and grabbed his arms to see the needle marks all over both arms._

"_What the hell were you thinking? You know how dangerous that shit is Nikola." Luc yelled out at the vampire who was looking wild eyed, trembling violently, as well as starting to sweat. Luc grabbed him and started dragging him to the bathroom but Nikola was struggling fiercely and managed to get free._

_Nikola growled as his features shifted slowly to reveal his vampire form._

"_Get the fuck out. I don't need you here." Nikola snarled out, claws flexing in anticipation._

"_You really want to try this Nikola? You really think that you can go up against a Naga in your condition?" Luc pulled off his coat and his features shifted only slightly as his true form would be much too large to suit his purposes at the moment. His eyes became entirely acidic yellow with a thin slit pupil. His jaw opened slightly to reveal a pair of curved fangs dripping with venom and he gained sharp claws on his fingers. He rolled his shoulders in preparation of the short fight ahead. "Fine. Bring it Vampire."_

_Nikola attacked with a slash towards Luc's throat but was only met with air as Luc twisted around and down to sweep Nikola's legs out from beneath him. Nikola landed hard on his back though got up surprisingly quickly considering his current state. Before Nikola could even move, his arms were twisted behind him and he was shoved face first into the wall with sharp fangs dripping venom against his neck in warning. The one thing Nikola seemed to forget in his drugged stupor was the fact that a Naga is incredibly fast in both of its forms._

"_Get off of me you fucking overgrown garden snake." Nikola snarled out as he struggled to get free._

"_I am going to ignore that comment given how fucking stoned you are at the moment." Luc twisted Nikola's wrists as he dragged the angry vampire into the bathroom and shoved him into the shower. He turned on the water as cold as it would go and Nikola jumped, screeched in anger and tried to get out but Luc stepped in and pulled Nikola against him so the vampires back was against his chest. He wrapped his arms around Nikola so he could grab his hands and pull them tightly across his chest so he couldn't get free. Nikola had unintentionally changed back into his human features once the icy water had hit him and Luc had shifted back once he grabbed Nikola. He hadn't wanted to hurt the vampire by accident in the process of trying to take care of him._

"_Let me go, let me go." Nikola yelped out as the icy water pelted him fiercely. Luc just held him closely to make sure he didn't get loose._

"_It's ok Nikola. It's ok." Luc said soothingly._

"_No, no, no, don't want to remember, don't want to feel the pain. Please let me go…" Nikola was begging as he felt the unpleasant sensation of sobriety slowly coming upon him._

_They stayed in the shower until Nikola was shivering and unfortunately for him…mostly sober. Luc stripped him out of his clothes, dried him off and put fresh clothes on him before depositing him into bed. Luc dried himself off and borrowed some of Nikola's clothes for himself before moving to Nikola who had curled up in a small ball under the covers._

"_Nikola?" He put a hand on the vampire's shoulder but it was only shrugged off. "I'm not going to say sorry for what I did just now. I am sorry for not realizing just how bad things were. If I had known how bad it would get…anyway, I am going to stay here tonight so if you need me I will be here ok?"_

_After a few minutes with no answer Luc just sighed and went into the living room to start cleaning up the mess and to get rid of all the drugs Nikola probably had stashed around the house._

_It wasn't until he had been cleaning for several hours that he felt a chill run down his spine. It was an unfortunate familiar feeling, the taste of blood in the air and the chilling sense of death that made him stop mid action and bolt to Nikola's room immediately._

_He paused for a brief moment in horror as he saw Nikola on the bed, crimson pooling over the sheets from deep gashes on his arms. The vampire had slashed the center of his wrist down to the crook of his elbow on both arms. He was deathly pale and motionless and if it hadn't been for the shallow breathing Luc would have thought him a corpse. Luc grabbed the phone to dial 911 and quickly gave the address before dropping the phone to try and stop the bleeding._

"_I should have known better then to leave you alone. I knew your healing was slowed enough that you might be able to pull something like this off. I am so fucking stupid for not realizing what you had planned. You damn stupid selfish bastard, I swear if you survive I am going to fucking kill you myself." Luc ranted to himself as he heard the ambulance finally arrive. _

"_Please don't die. I don't want to lose my best friend." Luc whispered as he watched Nikola being taken away._

* * *

><p>"You tried to kill yourself?" Sam was standing over Nikola looking quite livid with bright orange feline eyes.<p>

"…" Nikola just stayed silent waiting for the explosion to come and he was not disappointed.

"You tried to kill yourself? How fucking stupid are you? Why the hell didn't you come to us? Lucifer, why the fuck didn't you say something to me about this? I swear you both are such fucking idiots. I should not let the two of you be alone with one another ever…" Her husband put a hand over her mouth to stop her ranting and yanked her down to the ground.

"Love, please calm down before you shift. And as much as I love seeing you in all your were-tigress glory, I do not think this is the right place for it." She scowled but managed to calm down. Her eyes changed back to normal and she breathed deeply a few times.

"Luc…we will talk about this later. Nikola…why must you always be so damn stubborn?"

"It's a gift." He quipped.

"Dork."

"Brat."

"Love you too." Sam smiled at him in silent acceptance of his unspoken apology.

"So that's how Luc got you to see me?" Jade piped in suddenly.

"It took a little bit of persuading and well, a lot of brute force before I even agreed but…yes." Nikola said as he chewed on his lip. _'Really need to work on getting out of that habit.'_ He thought to himself absently.

"I had been wondering about that. I mean I knew it was a suicide attempt but I never got the specifics from you." Jade said thoughtfully. "Explains a lot."

"One the bright side…he isn't depressed to a suicidal level anymore." Luc said in a perky tone.

"You know…I think you may be the only person in the world to be so cheery about such a dark topic." Sam said as she shook her head at her husband's oddities.

"I am not cheery…" Everyone just gave him a look he was quite familiar with. He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I am just happy that Nikola got help when he needed it. I'm even happier that Jade introduced you to Tash and Lexi so they could create anti-depressants that would work with your vampire physiology. Honestly, emo Nikola is way too much to handle."

"I was not emo." Nikola said with a mock scowl.

"Yeah, you were."

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Oh shut up snake."

"Bite me leech." The pair continued arguing like a pair of school children as they all started to leave the cemetery and wander towards the park.


	8. Chapter 8

Jade and Sam just looked at each other in amusement at how the pair was acting with each other. It seemed like every time those two got together they couldn't help but start acting childish. It was admittedly, amusing to watch but you had to keep an eye on them or else they would end up in some kind of trouble.

Currently Luc was chasing Nikola, probably for something he said. The serpent managed to catch the vampire in a tackle and they both went to the ground. Luc started tickling Nikola causing him to screech in laughter and struggle to get free. The vampire finally did manage to squirm away and was playfully glaring at his friend who just grinned at him. Luc paused all of a sudden, head tilted to the side before he seemed to disappear in a blur.

They were all surprised when Luc disappeared from sight all of a sudden only to return a few moments later holding a young woman's arm tightly. Nikola looked up to see Kate in Luc's grip and cursing like mad. He frowned and stood up slowly.

"What the fuck dude? Seriously get your hands off of me." Nikola hid a smile at her reaction to Luc's overprotective nature. It was a little known fact that male Naga tended to be very protective of what they considered to be their family group.

"Is this yours Niko? She was eavesdropping and following us since the cemetery." Luc said as he held Kate before him slightly. She tried once again to get out of his grip to no avail.

"Unfortunately yes. Put her down Luc. I'm sure she wont be stupid enough to try anything around a Were-Tiger, a Siren, a Naga and a Vampire." Luc dropped her arm and she rubbed it while edging away from him.

"Was there something you needed Kate?" Nikola asked in a pleasant tone that had the slightest hint of steel in it. Kate looked around at everyone for a moment and knew she had to be cautious in her answer.

"I was visiting someone here when I saw you. So I kind of…" She trailed off.

"Decided to eavesdrop on the vampire to see why he was in a cemetery?"

"Um…yeah…sorry. I shouldn't have intruded." She said feeling slightly guilty.

"I should have known that Scooby Gang mentality would pop up sooner or later with one of the terrible trio." Nikola said rolling his eyes.

"Oh relax Kate, I promise not to bite. No promises on them though." He said with a playful smirk.

"Only if she tries something stupid." Luc said as he narrowed his yellow eyes.

"Luc, play nice. Besides, we both know if the cute little human tries anything then Jade with tear her to shreds." Sam said pleasantly as she and Jade managed to catch up to the boys. The pleasantness of her tone caused Kate to look slightly nervous.

"Hmm…"

"Don't mind them. They tend to be a bit over protective of me." Nikola said with a roll of his eyes causing Kate to smile slightly.

"Yeah, kinda getting that vibe from them."

"I promise they are not nearly as bad as they seem once you get to know them. Anyway, how much did you hear?"

"Uh…everything after wife and car crash." She said.

"Why am I not surprised? You really are surprisingly sneaky for a human."

"Thanks…I think." They were quiet for a few minutes before Nikola sighed and spoke.

"Go ahead and ask. I know you're just dying to know." He gestured to his clothing as she had been giving him strange looks.

"Why are you dressed like a college student?"

"I will have you know that this is my preferred style of dress. Also I have been to college quite a few times."

"Oh yeah. I remember those years how long was it? Forty years? Fifty?" Luc interjected eagerly.

"I think it was a total of about 48 years actually." Nikola said absently.

"Ah the time spent making all kinds of chaos in those schools. And on occasion we learned a thing or two. What were those schools again? Harvard, Princeton, Yale…" Luc trailed off for a moment trying to remember but Nikola picked up where he left off.

"Columbia, Stanford, MIT…"

"Duke, Dartmouth, Northwestern…"

"Johns Hopkins, Penn U…"

"Brown, Cornell…" They both looked at each other and exclaimed at the same time…

"UCLA." They grinned before bursting into laughter.

"Those were the days." Luc said wistfully. Nikola grinned widely at the surprised look on Kate's face.

"Those times were nothing compared to your bachelor party."

"Oh God, don't remind me. I still wonder how the hell we wound up in the middle of the freaking Gobi Desert."

"Yeah…after that last drink I passed out so I don't remember a thing. Really gotta find out what the hell was in that thing." Nikola muttered to himself.

"And you guys are not allowed to drink alone or go to Vegas without a chaperone." Sam and Jade said together. "Especially not Vegas after that incident."

"One time…" Luc started.

"And we get branded for life." Nikola finished.

"You guys need to stop doing that…it is way creepy." Sam said, they both looked at her at the same time with the exact expression on their face.

"Doing what?" They said with mischievous smiles.

"Ok, really now. The twin thing is weird." Jade said. Kate couldn't hold in her laughter any more and practically doubled over from how much she was laughing.

Luc looked at the girl who was on the floor laughing like a maniac and turned to the others with a cute innocent look on his face.

"I think we broke her Niko."

"I doubt it Luc. I'm not that lucky." Nikola said deadpan causing the woman to crack up yet again.

"How long have you guys known each other?" Kate asked once she was able to speak again with bursting into peals of laughter.

"Him?" Nikola motioned to his serpent friend. "Since we met at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. He was very annoying."

"And you were a stubborn brat, yet here we are."

"You stalked me."

"I did not stalk you, you over dramatic blood sucker."

"So following me around everywhere I went was not stalking?"

"I thought you were interesting alright. So I decided to follow you around until you spoke to me."

"And then you didn't stop." Nikola said deadpan. Luc just pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You could have easily gotten me to go away but you didn't. So what does that say about you?"

"That I am crazy enough to enjoy having you as a friend?"

"Good answer." Jade said softly to Sam and Kate who giggled.

"Aw Niko, I wuv you too!" Luc said in a singsong tone and pulled the vampire in for a hug that he struggled to get out of.

"Get off python or I will bite you." Nikola said without any heat behind the words. Luc just grinned and playfully buried his face into Nikola's neck.

"No you won't…you don't like the way I taste. You bit me once when you were upset and said I don't taste right. Besides, you know you like my snuggles."

"Sam, please get your molester of a husband off of me." Nikola begged to Sam who was biting her lip in amusement. She crossed her arms in front of her.

"Why?"

"What?" Nikola yelped out as one of Luc's hand found a place on his waist. "What?"

"I'm enjoying the view so why should I break up such a pretty sight?" She asked seriously before busting out laughing at the deer-in-headlights look on Nikola's face. She grabbed Luc and they both chuckled at the vampire who was frowning now.

"Not funny. Not funny at all. I will have my revenge you know."

"You can try. But we know how that will turn out for you." Jade said. Kate was watching the whole exchange with a fascinated look on her face. Obviously there was a whole lot more to Nikola then anyone even thought possible.

"Kate…" Nikola's voice brought her out of her reverie. "Make them stop being mean to me." He said in a mock whine with a truly adorable pout on his face as he pointed to his friends. She rolled her eyes but decided to join in the fun.

"Now children you better behave or no ice cream for you today." She said in a fake strict tone and waggled her finger at them. They all paused for a moment to look at her before Sam and Jade just grinned.

"We are so keeping you." The girls said together before they all started chatting. Luc and Nikola just looked at each other then to the chatty women.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing." Nikola muttered.

"From what you've told me about her I would say bad. Think of what kind of trouble they will get into. Then imagine how bad it will be when she meets the twins." Nikola shuddered in horror. "You have bad luck with women sometimes don't you?"

"You have no idea."

"Two words can sum everything up vamp boy…Helen Magnus."

"Oh enough about her. I already told her off and I think maybe accidentally kicked myself out of the Sanctuary in the process but I digress."

"How does one manage to kick oneself out?"

"Long story short, I had sex with Abby, got into a fight with her ex, got yelled at by Helen about it, yelled at Helen for being a bitch during which time I said I needed to get away from her."

"You had sex with Abby?"

"Of course that is what you pick up on."

"You must really like her if you had sex with her already."

"Lucifer…do yourself a big favor and shut up now."

"Right…so…if you need a place to stay in the off chance you really did manage to kick yourself out, you are always welcome at my house."

"Thanks. I will remind you however, that I have my own house just outside the city. But I'll remember your offer if Helen decides to shoot me when I get back and I need to bitch to someone about it."

"She even considers it and I will personally kick her ass for you. I don't like hitting women unless they hit me first but I am more then willing to make an exception for her." Luc said fiercely.

"I am sure it wont be necessary but thanks for the thought."

"No Nikola. Anyone that you call friend should not treat you the way she has treated you over the years. If she keeps this up I swear I will pull a freaking Medusa on her." His little rant drew the attention of the others who were listening in to their conversation.

"Medusa…as in your mother?" Nikola asked. He had only met the woman once and that was more then enough for him. She didn't seem able to decide whether she wanted to eat him or mate with him and needless to say, he really did not want to run into her again.

"I can't help it that my family has this tradition of weird ass names. Also my mother is a Nagini and they are notorious for eating those that threaten their clans. I personally am not fond of human flesh, I find it too gamey tasting, but I will make an exception for one Helen Magnus."

"I'm sure that won't be necessary."

"Let's hope so for her sake." Luc hissed out in annoyance at the thought of that woman doing anything to harm his dearest friend.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Apologies for this being posted so much later then I intended but I unfortunately got sick and did not feel up to writing until a few days ago when I finally got better.

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><p>The group had chatted for a while before going to get coffee. Kate found herself really liking the version of Nikola before her. The one who was playful, witty and open to people instead of closed off all the time. Jade had mentioned that the reason Nikola was like this was mostly because of Katarina's death. After her death he closed himself off to all but his friends and put on the mask he usually wears now of being uncaring and cold. Kate was told that Nikola's main problem isn't that he doesn't care…it's that he cares too much. He falls in love so easily but has had his heart broken so many times that he is almost terrified of it happening again and ending up with his heart shattered yet again. He knows how easily he can be manipulated because of his emotions, for example by Helen Magnus, so he tries to hide how he really feels to prevent being taken advantage off.<p>

It gave Kate some food for thought as she absently listened to Luc and Nikola argue for the third time about whether or not Nikola should stay at the Sanctuary.

"I really think you should stay away from her. She is not good for you." Luc said yet again. Nikola shook his head at the other man with whom he had been arguing for the past hour about this topic.

"I know she isn't good for me, but I do like the Sanctuary. I like being there for the most part."

"I realize you do but I think it would do you good to get away for a while." Jade said soothingly as Nikola was starting to look a bit angry. Luc winced as Sam gave him _**'The Look of Doom' **_and he just shut up without saying another word.

"Maybe you're right. I could use some time away. And I did kind of manage to kick myself out. Damn, now I have to pack my things." Nikola muttered with a frown.

"We could help with that if you like." Sam interjected with an odd tone in her voice as she glanced at Jade who had a slightly vicious smile on her face. Nikola just looked at them before groaning and shaking his head.

"There is no way to refuse you is there?"

"Not the slightest." Jade said pleasantly.

"This is not going to end well." Luc muttered as the group started walking towards the Sanctuary.

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><p>The entire group walked through the doors of the Sanctuary and Kate noticed Will and Helen coming down the stairs. She nudged Nikola in the side and gestured her head to where the pair were coming from and he sighed in annoyance and whispered a thank you to her.<p>

"Jade, Sam, please try not to kill them." He said in a low voice before he paused for a moment. "You as well Luc."

"No promises my friend. I will do my best to hold back my instincts but no promises." Luc said in an equally low tone.

"Fair enough." Nikola shrugged and turned his attention to Helen and her protégé. He was still slightly upset with Helen for her words earlier in the day. He shrugged the feelings away and brushed past her and her pet doctor with Luc following closely behind though the serpent did spare a deathly glare for the woman as he passed by.

"Nikola…" Helen started but Nikola didn't even turn around as he spoke.

"Helen, meet my friends, Luc will be helping me to pack my things while Sam and Jade have a little chat with you and your pet. Kate, please make sure they don't end up killing each other." He said loudly as he walked upstairs to his room.

"I'll do my best." She hollered back at him and leaned against the wall to watch the entertainment to come.

"Twenty says Jade makes Magnus end up in tears." Luc said as they reached Nikola's room and started packing his belongings.

"No bet. Helen will hold them back until she is in private then let loose. As for William…no clue."

"Well whatever happens, they deserve it for messing with our vampire."

"You're so adorable when you're overprotective." Nikola said in a mocking tone causing Luc to toss a pillow in his face. Nikola just narrowed his eyes as the pillow fell to the bed. He glared at the serpent before launching a pillow at the other man's face. Luc ducked slightly but managed to catch the pillow and the two just looked at each other for a moment before Nikola grabbed a pillow himself. It wasn't long before the pair ended up in an epic pillow fight that ended with feathers fluttering around the room and the two giggling on the floor like maniacs.

"That was fun, we should do that again sometime, maybe with our lovely girls around." Luc said mischievously causing Nikola to burst into laughter again. The girls walked into the room to find feathers covering every surface of the room and a pair of children masquerading as adults lying on the floor howling with laughter. They looked up to see the girls, glanced at each other and the laughter started all over again.

"Honestly, we leave you alone for ten minutes and this is what happens? We just can't take you anywhere now can we?" Sam said as she helped the boys to their feet.

"He started it." Nikola said pointed at Luc.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Boys, boys, can't you just agree to disagree?" Jade said.

"Yes mom." They said at the same time causing Kate, who was standing in the doorway, to giggle.

"I swear dealing with the pair of you is like dealing with a set of five year old twins." Sam muttered.

"We really aren't that bad. Are we?" Luc asked innocently.

"Yes you are. I can name at least a dozen incidents that you two have been involved in because you were acting like children."

"Why don't we finish packing so we can get Nikola to his place?" Jade said to avoid any possible arguments that might spring up.

"Want some help?" Kate asked from her spot by the door.

"You could start on the books if you want. I should have a few containers over there you can use to start packing them." Nikola said absently as he started packing again.

The book packing was easier said then done. Books were covering every available surface. They were crammed on the bookshelves to the point where they were starting to creak ominously with the weight of all the texts on them. They lay in precariously stacked piles on the table and chairs, scattered around absently on the floor, they were even tucked away in dresser drawers and the pockets of some of his clothes in the closet. Nikola seemed to have more books then any other possessions. There was barely any space to walk around and one could hardly move around without tripping over a book or rather, some massive piles of books.

Kate almost tripped on one of said books as well as some stray feathers but managed to catch herself before she fell. She picked up the book that almost caused her fall and blinked in disbelief for a moment.

"You've read Harry Potter?" She asked. He turned to her and saw the book in her hand.

"I was wondering where that went. I keep meaning to finish that one but I never could seem to find the time."

"Harry Potter?"

"Yeah…so?"

"They aren't too bad. Completely inaccurate of course…still not too bad." Luc said absently causing everyone to look at him oddly before continuing whatever they had been doing.

"Wait. What? What?" Kate asked causing Luc to look up at her.

"Yeah, McGonagall really was quite a fox back in the day."

"You're joking right?" Kate asked. He just smiled and turned back to packing. "He's joking right? Hogwarts isn't real?" Nikola shrugged as he folded one of his t-shirts.

"I don't have a clue. It's hard to tell with Luc when he's serious or not."

"…" She just blinked absently and went to packing away books. "Why do you have a copy of Twilight?"

"So I can throw it at Luc when he annoys me. I have the others for that reason too. I can't stand the thought of even reading those books. It makes me sick to even think of them but they are good ammunition to use when annoyed with someone. Why else would I have gotten the hard cover copies of those dreadful things?"

"Ah." Kate said as if that explained everything. Luc opened his mouth to say something but Nikola cut him off with a glare.

"No. Just…no." Luc just nodded with a wide grin as he started on the closet.

It took several hours to pack the books alone but once finished everything else took very little time at all and soon enough they were almost done. Not that the vampire himself had done much packing. Most of his time had been taken up when Abby had decided to call him. When he had gotten off the phone the vampire was smiling brightly and had announced he had a date with Abby later that night. Everyone smiled at him before Luc broke the moment by asking of he was planning on helping with what little packing left. There were no traces that the vampire had even lived in the room by the time they were done. Sam and Jade had gone with Luc to take his belongings to his house and Kate had left but not before giving him a kiss on the cheek and telling him not to be a stranger. So all he had to do now was grab his coat and phone and leave.

* * *

><p>It had been several weeks and Nikola was doing much better then he had been when he was living with that woman (his friends refused to refer to her by name) in the Sanctuary. He was currently dating Abby who he was becoming even fonder of every day. He had been genuinely surprised by Abby when he told her that he was a vampire. All she had done was look at him for a moment before asking to see his vampire features. When she had finished examining him she kissed him with a smile and said ok. That was it. That was the end of the matter as far as she was concerned. It didn't matter to her what he was, she simply accepted him wholly and completely. The two had been spending a lot of time together as everyone else was busy with other things.<p>

Luc and Sam were off on a second honeymoon in Italy. Jade was visiting her parents in Greece and the twins had been kept incredibly busy at work and while no one saw them much, they did call and occasionally meet up. Kate came by to visit every once in a while, usually bringing the wolf boy with her. All in all, things were going very well for Nikola, which, by the _**Laws of the Universe**_, meant something very bad was going to happen soon. But for the moment he was trying to ignore that slight feeling of doom that seemed to be hanging in wait for the right moment to strike and simply enjoy his time with Abby.

And currently Nikola and Abby were driving back to Nikola's house for a lovely dinner that he was going to prepare for his fantastic girlfriend. They had driven up to the rather quant little farmhouse just outside of town and Nikola moved to Abby's side of the car to open the door for her. They had barely started towards the house when they were thrown off their feet by the sudden violent explosion that enveloped the entire structure and sent flaming debris flying everywhere.

Nikola shook his head slightly trying to rid himself of the severe ringing in his ears and looked at Abby who was already sitting up.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"In perfect condition. Though I can't say the same about my house. My house…" Nikola looked truly mournful at the sight of the flames devouring his home.

"I don't mean to sound harsh or anything but it was just a house."

"I know that. That part doesn't really bother me."

"Then what's wrong?"

"All my books were in there." Nikola said as he stared. Abby just nodded and hugged him close. She knew how much he treasured his massive collection of books. Even she was a bit upset about its loss because she herself was an avid reader and to see that many books go up in flames was a terrible thing indeed.

"I either left something on that I shouldn't have, destroyed a civilization or something in a past life which I think is entirely likely since the universe seems to hate me these days and is probably trying to get payback or…" He trailed off not wanting to think about the third possibility.

"Or what?" Abby asked gently.

"Or someone is trying to kill me. Or you." He said quietly. They were silent as they watched the inferno before them, both not knowing what to say in the situation they currently found themselves.

"I'm going to have to go back to the Sanctuary aren't I?" Nikola asked wearily.

"Looks like it my dear vampire." Abby said as she helped Nikola to his feet. Nikola took one sorrowful last look before they got into the car and headed for the one place Nikola really did not want to go at the moment.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: I know, I know, short chapter but with good reason...I hate having to write something gender neutral. But if I didn't then it would spoil the surprise reveal later. Chapter 11 is almost finished and I will try to upload it as soon as possible but with all the thunderstorms lately I don't know if I will be able to post anytime soon. I'm only loading this now because the storm has died out for the moment.

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><p><em>'It is a shame they didn't see what was right in front of them.' <em>Came the thoughts of the hidden figure that was watching the vampire across the street with interest as he stepped into the Sanctuary. _'It could have made this game so much more fun.'_

If anyone were to look across the street, the only thing they would have seen was a vague shape cloaked in the darkness of the alley with a pair of eyes and a terrifying smile being the only visible signs that someone was possibly even there. The smile was a twisted, gruesome parody of a Cheshire cat grin, dark and demented with equally manic steely blue grey eyes shining out from the shadows. Both disappeared so quickly that anyone watching would have thought they had seen a nightmarish wraith off to hunt its next victim. And they would be right, although the only prey this wraith was hunting was a certain vampire by the name of Nikola Tesla.

_'Oh Tesla, you don't even realize what you have gotten into. Playing my game though you don't even know it. But then again, it is always so much more fun when they don't even realize they are playing right into your hands.'_

The figure grinned maliciously while darting through the back alleys until reaching what appeared to be a small run down building and slipped inside. The building was much different inside with a very comfortable homey interior. A jacket was dropped onto a couch before the figure headed towards the desk where several computer screens were set up. The glow from the monitors shone gently across pale skin as blue grey eyes looked at the images on the screens.

On each of the screens were images from the Sanctuary security cameras, labs, hallways, offices, all the feeds had been hacked into and a few tapped keys on the keyboard later allowed the feed from Helen's office to be pulled up. Unfortunately there was no sound but lip reading was fairly easy for one who had enough practice so the silent conversation was easy enough to follow.

Nikola was slumped on Helen's couch in her office drinking heavily while obviously ranting about what happened. Helen was speaking with him, trying to calm him down and get the wine away from him.

A wicked grin appeared on the watcher's face at the look of utter dismay on the scientist's face.

"Just as I predicted. Oh Nikola, Nikola, Nikola, you really are making things far to easy for me." One hand tapped on the desk absently as its owner was seemingly lost in thought. "Such a pity that I am going to have to wait to make my next move as my little surprise is not quite ready to be set loose."

A quick glance to the side revealed a pair of Jessopeds, currently sedated in their cages and a well-secured Coleanthropus almost ready to leave its cocoon.

Finding the Coleanthropus egg was a task in and of itself but the prize was well worth it. It took almost a year of searching to find the unhatched egg and another 6 months of keeping the egg in a proper cryostasis container to prevent hatching and allow time to find a formula to slow the gestation cycle which, was even more difficult but the end results were well worth the effort.

The creature was currently growing slowly enough to handle it with ease while in its cocoon. It would be several weeks until it was ready due to slowing its growth down but the wait would be well worth all of the effort. Just setting the Coleanthropus loose would be enough of a distraction considering how difficult they were contain, the Jessopeds really had no reason for being there except to add a little more trouble. Setting those creatures loose in three separate areas of the city would cause enough chaos to allow access to the Sanctuary while everyone was out hunting them down.

A cold, harsh laughter filled the air as slim delicate hands turned off the computer monitors.

"Well, I just hope you enjoy my little surprise especially after I went through so much trouble to find the perfect gift for you. I plan on making this one birthday you will never forget my dear Tesla." That wicked Cheshire cat grin appeared once more as the slim figure headed away from the desk to plan the next move in the twisted game being played. The pieces were set, now it was time for the game to truly start.

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><p>AN: I did not just make up the creatures and in case anyone wants to know about said creatures...<p>

The _**Jessoped**_ is a type of abnormal that shoots poisonous quills. It was mentioned but never seen on the show so I cannot provide a description of what it looks like and will in later chapters probably be creating my own appearance for it. It was Season 3 Episode 13 called One Night if anyone wants the specific episode in which it was mentioned. Also, little side note, in that episode Abby got poisoned by one of the quills and Will had to create an antidote to save her life.

The _**Coleanthropus**_ is type of abnormal that can infest humans, it is a cross between a reptile and an insect. They begin life as large eggs buried beneath the ground in sealed chambers. When exposed to air, the egg hatches into a larvae, which implants itself in a host, taking it over and giving it a hunger for meat. Eventually, it tears its way out of its host and develops into its next stage, turning into a large creature with a wasp-like head and exoskeleton and a lizard-like body. Following this, it creates a cocoon and develops into its next stage, growing still larger in size. They are also known for their high-pitched cry. It was seen and mentioned in Season 2 Episode 4 Hero if anyone wanted to know.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Finally finished this darn chapter and am posting while the dang thunderstorms are taking a break for a change. Stupid storms. If I don't post my chapters quite as often as usual I apologize because I had some fantastic ideas for a couple of new stories so I am going to try to work on those as well as this story.

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><p>Nikola had been at the Sanctuary for several weeks during which time he had managed to finish off everything in the wine cellar in almost record time and make himself an almost permanent residence in the library. It was becoming oddly normal to see him in the library for hours, if not days at a time, surrounded by stacks of books and empty bottles of wine. He was quite obviously still feeling the loss of his home and book collection.<p>

Thankfully for everyone, it was actually Henry who seemed to be quite good at distracting him from his depression. There were always things that needed to be done around the Sanctuary and Henry had become good at finding things to peak Nikola's interest enough that he wouldn't think of anything else except solving the puzzle in front of him. Of course the little puzzles would never last too long if you considered how intelligent Nikola was, but they seemed to help distract him and Henry was learning quite a bit from the vampire in the process.

The vampire and werewolf were arguing over a piece of equipment when Helen walked into the lab with a look of amusement on her face at the pair arguing like children.

"Something wrong here gentlemen?" She asked as they turned to her as though surprised to see her in the room.

"Wolf boy here seems to disagree with me on the finer points of electrical engineering…"

"Because you're wrong and you know it Vlad."

"My puppy protégé does not seem to realize that when it comes to matters of an electrical nature, I am the master and he is the student." Nikola continued as though he hadn't been interrupted and dropped a screwdriver on the table before facing Helen.

"Since when is Henry your protégé?" Helen asked with a slight smile.

"You have one so why can't I? And it isn't as though he has anything better to do with his spare time. So I figured why let all that potential talent go to waste?" Nikola motioned to the werewolf absently.

"Hey, I am in the room and don't I get a say in this?" Henry asked even though he didn't really mind Nikola calling him his protégé and he wasn't even about to mention the fact that the vampire had just complimented him, despite the fact it was backhanded praise. It had just become a habit to complain about such things where Nikola was concerned. Plus they both enjoyed the back and forth banter that ensued from such comments.

"No. Now hush puppy, the grown ups are talking." Nikola said though his tone was slightly playful to let Henry know he wasn't being serious. Henry rolled his eyes in mock annoyance and shook his head before going back to his work.

"Jackass." Henry mumbled causing Nikola to toss something at him.

"Shh or I will muzzle you pup."

"Just try it Fang."

"Don't tempt me Heinrich."

"Well its good to see the two of you getting along so well. I guess I will just leave you to your problem. Do try not to blow anything up this time Nikola." Helen said interrupting the banter.

"It was an accident last time. Science often involves certain risks and failures…and how was I supposed to know that was going to happen?" Nikola said slightly sheepishly as he really had caused quite the explosion the other day. Luckily for everyone involved, it was mostly black smoke, a little fire and noise as opposed to actual destruction. Apart from the small fire that was easily put out before becoming serious, nothing was actually harmed. The most damage done was a little black singeing on the walls.

"I know. Though I do still wonder how you manage to cause things that could never possibly explode to do so in such a spectacular fashion."

"It was pretty impressive if I do say so myself." Henry said.

"What can I say? I'm talented like that." Nikola grinned slightly causing Helen to smile in fondness at the pair.

"Well if you could keep explosions to a minimum this week I would most appreciate it."

"I shall endeavor to do so my dear Helen. But you know I can't promise anything." She rolled her eyes and left the room muttering something about cheeky vampires, paperwork and wine.

"You know she's going to find out." Henry said once Helen had gotten out of hearing range.

"Eventually."

"She's going to shoot you."

"Probably."

"Then she'll shoot me."

"Doubtful. She'll probably just lecture you about how you should not be listening to my ideas."

"You mean schemes."

"Ideas, schemes. Same difference." Nikola waved a hand absently.

"Yeah but…" Nikola just put a hand over Henry's mouth before shushing him again.

"Quiet. Stop worrying yourself Wolfgang. It's getting rather annoying." Nikola said before pulling away and turning back to his work. "Besides, its not like I'm planning world domination…again."

"Oh like those plots ever go well for you anyway. Or do I need to bring up the trust fund vamps again?"

"…Shut up."

Henry grinned to himself as the vampire turned away looking slightly embarrassed and he knew he temporarily won this round.

"Trust fund vamps though?"

"Heinrich!" Nikola yelled causing the wolf to laugh and duck to avoid the object thrown at his head.

* * *

><p>It was several hours later that Nikola and Henry found themselves headed for Helens office while discussing a new power source for the stunners that Nikola wanted to try out.<p>

"That could work." Henry said as they entered the office. Nikola just smirked at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Of course it will. I do actually consider these things quite thoroughly despite what people seem to think."

"I believe you. What do you think about…" Henry didn't get a chance to finish as Kate and Will entered the room followed closely by Helen who was looking particularly serious.

"I didn't do it." Nikola said quickly when he saw the look on Helen's face. Henry just turned to him with a slightly amused look. "What? When she has that face on either I did something or something really serious is going on. I'm just covering my bases."

"There are reports of a creature resembling a Coleanthropus loose in the warehouse district." Helen said causing Henry to frown.

"One of those big lizard wasp things?" Helen nodded and Henry winced in remembrance of the creature they had only managed to contain by pure luck.

"I take it by everyone's wincing this is a bad thing?" Nikola asked.

"Imagine a T-Rex with armor, longer arms, a wasps head and standing about 20 feet tall and you'll pretty much have it." Henry said and Nikola shuddered at the image.

"Oh."

"There have also been sightings of Jessopeds. Reports say they are incredibly aggressive which is unusual as they are usually docile unless they are cornered or feel threatened." Will said.

"We have teams headed out now but we are going to need your help if it is a Coleanthropus." Helen finished up and Henry was already headed out to grab his gear.

"Exactly where were the Jessopeds spotted?" Nikola asked Will all of a sudden with a worried look on his face. Will answered and Nikola turned deathly pale.

"Abby. She's in that area." He whispered and ran out of the room quickly followed by Kate and then Helen who told Will to take care of the Coleanthropus.

* * *

><p>The car screeched to a halt in front of the building and Nikola was out before Helen and Kate could even blink. They got out quickly and followed the vampire as best they could.<p>

"Can we agree to never let him drive again? I don't think I've ever been so scared for my life after having been in a car with him driving." Kate said still looking slightly pale.

"Agreed." Helen said shaking her head slightly at the memory of the terrifying ride.

A loud growl filled the air and the women rushed towards the sound. Nikola was standing over Abby snarling protectively with several quills embedded in his flesh, his vampire features out in full force. The Jessoped let loose something that sounded like a cross between a hiss and a growl. Luckily for Abby, none of the poisonous quills had hit her, unfortunately the four-inch claws had sliced deep wounds into her abdomen and the blood was driving the beast even wilder then it already seemed to be.

Helen immediately started to make her way over to Abby while Kate covered her. Abby was still conscious, barely, and crimson liquid was covering the floor and kept pouring freely from her injuries. She whimpered softly as Helen tried to stem the bleeding as best she could and Nikola twitched at the sound but kept his eyes on the animal in front of him.

The creature was large, almost twice the size of an African Lion with a very similarly large feline like body to match. Instead of just having fur, it had a mixture of fur and a deadly collection of sharp poison quills running from the base of its skull along its back to the tip of its wolf like tail. Its fur was a thick, shaggy mixture of yellow orange with the occasional black stripe and its eyes were an entirely lime green color with a pupil so small it was almost unseen. It bared its six-inch fangs and attempted to slash its long claws at Nikola again.

Nikola ducked the claws and followed up with his own set flying towards the face of the creature only to miss by millimeters as it backed away trying to find another point of attack.

"Nikola down!" Kate yelled as she finally managed to get a decent shot without Nikola being in the way. The vampire hit the ground as Kate fired the stunner at full power several times before the Jessoped finally fell to the ground unconscious. Nikola immediately moved to Abby and noticed she had passed out while Helen had been trying to stop her bleeding.

"We need to get her to the Sanctuary immediately." Helen said while turning to Kate.

"I already called the Big Guy when I saw Abby, he's getting everything ready now and a team is about five minutes away to pick up Spike here." Kate said motioning to the Jessoped on the floor. Nikola lifted Abby up as quickly and gently as possible so he could carry her to the car.

Both Kate and Helen noticed despite the fact he still had his vampire features out, he was being incredibly delicate with the bleeding woman, taking care not to harm her with his claws. Though from the look on his face it seemed harder to ignore the intense scent of blood that was swiftly soaking into his shirt. Helen followed with Kate who slipped into the drivers seat and drove them back to the Sanctuary as quickly as possible.


	12. Chapter 12

AN: Finally got around to finishing this chapter. I've been so busy writing my new stories that I almost forgot about this one. So here it is with profound apologies for the delay in posting and hopefully the next chapter will not take me so long to finish and post.

* * *

><p>Nikola watched as Helen and Biggie whisked off Abby to surgery almost the moment they set foot inside the Sanctuary. Nikola was shaking slightly, vampire features still out in full force. He didn't even notice Kate's presence beside him until she put her hand on his shoulder.<p>

"Hey, she'll be alright. She's tougher then she looks." Kate said softly as Nikola slowly turned to her. "Why don't you go get cleaned up?"

"No, I-I-I should stay with her." Nikola didn't even notice he had started stuttering a little. He was much too worried to even care. Kate however did notice. Even when upset Nikola usually kept his words elegant and intact so the fact he was stuttering now just proved how serious the situation really was.

"Nikola…she's going to be in surgery for a while. Tell you what…I will stay with her until you clean up ok? I don't think you want your girlfriend to wake up and see you looking like a psycho killer right?" Kate winced at her last sentence, she really didn't intend for it to come out that way.

Nikola looked down at the shirt he was wearing as though it were the first time he noticed it. The previously white shirt was now was almost completely soaked through with blood on the front. His eyes went wide and he paled drastically at the sight of Abby's blood staining his shirt. He backed against the wall and started to slide down slowly as everything seemed to hit him all at once. Once he hit the floor he pulled his knees against his chest as he tried to calm himself down to no avail. Kate moved down next to him and pulled him in for a hug, which he gratefully accepted. She held him in silence for a few minutes until he stopped shaking and had managed to rid himself of the claws and fangs, though his eyes were still pitch black.

"Thank you." Nikola mumbled softly as he slowly pulled away from Kate. "I-I'm going to clean up. Could you call Luc for me? Could you tell him what happened?"

"Of course. Want me to stay and keep an eye on Abby until you finish up?" She asked softly and he nodded as she stood up and offered him a hand to help him. He accepted and once on his feet he made his way upstairs to shower and change clothes, while Kate did just the opposite and headed downstairs to the surgery to make sure Abby was doing alright and to call Nikola's friends to let them know what happened.

* * *

><p>Nikola found Kate about a half hour later with his hair still wet from his shower and a set of fresh clothes on. He sat down beside her and she turned to him.<p>

"Nothing yet, she's still in there." Kate said softly. Nikola just nodded and turned his eyes towards the wall to wait. "I called Luc and he said he would be back from his trip tomorrow if he can catch a flight. He said he would call everyone else and tell them what happened."

"Thank you."

"What are friends for? Oh and they managed to catch the other Jessoped and the Coleanthropus so everyone is on their way back now." Nikola nodded again but didn't say anything else. Kate just grabbed his hand and held it as they waited for any news about Abby.

It was several hours later when Helen finally emerged in her scrubs looking exhausted. She saw Kate and Nikola holding hands and leaning on one another with Henry sitting on the opposite side of Nikola working on his computer tablet halfheartedly. Will was nowhere to be seen as he was busy getting their new intakes settled into their habitats. Plus, even though he still cared for Abby, he truly despised the vampire and did not want to spend any time more then necessary in his presence.

"How is she?" Kate asked after a few minutes when she saw Nikola either wasn't going to or was too afraid to ask.

"Stable for the moment. Her wounds were deep, tearing through a lot of abdominal muscle in the process but thankfully the claws didn't manage to hit any vital organs. We managed to repair the damage as best as possible for the moment. She did loose a lot of blood though, so I'm on my way to call the local hospitals to see if they have any AB- they can spare as we used our stock during the surgery."

"No." Nikola said quietly, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Nikola, she needs the blood."

"I meant you don't have to call the hospitals because I am AB-. I'll give her blood. Before you argue about my being a vampire, I just want to say that we both know I am actually only half vampire so my blood wouldn't be enough to activate any abnormal abilities that might be dormant in her DNA. It may also help her heal a little faster."

"Alright. Come with me Nikola." Helen said after looking at Nikola and the look his eyes said he would not take no for an answer. Nikola disentangled his hand from Kate's and followed Helen.

Helen set everything up for the transfusion and looked at Nikola who was staring at Abby and holding her hand gently. Helen put a hand on Nikola's shoulder.

"She's going to be alright Nikola." Helen said softly. Nikola just nodded though he kept his eyes on Abby's still form. "I'll be back in an hour or so to check on you both." He didn't notice Helen leave the room or hear her talking to Kate and Henry outside; he was far too worried about Abby to think about such things.

"Keep an eye on him will you?" Helen asked Kate who nodded and sat back down in her chair. Henry was frowning at his tablet causing both women to look at him.

"Is something wrong?" Helen asked.

"I'm not sure. I think there is a glitch in the system or something. I'm looking over it now, but its weird." Henry said as he continued working.

"How so?"

"I was doing a basic systems check and found the main computer core had been accessed about 7 hours ago."

"I don't see what's strange about that." Kate said.

"The strange part is it was accessed when all of us were out the Sanctuary and normally that wouldn't be so weird because sometimes the system glitches but someone used a specific code to get into the system." Henry said.

"Whose code?" Helen asked immediately worried for security.

"Tesla's. And not only did someone use his code but they also managed to take down the cameras in the area but I am working on that now to see if I can find anything useful."

"Keep on it Henry, I want to know who it was that accessed my system."

"On it doc." Henry said and rushed to his lab so he could work faster.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on him." Kate said motioning the quiet vampire. Helen just nodded and headed upstairs to ponder the mystery of who could have possibly been in her house.

* * *

><p>Henry rushed into Helen's office a few hours later and before she could say anything he shoved the computer tablet at her. What she saw made her eyes widen and drop the tablet as she headed straight for the infirmary. Henry grabbed the tablet and followed swiftly.<p>

Kate was reading a book and only looked up when Helen and Henry rushed towards her.

"Where is he?" Helen demanded and Kate just pointed to Abby's room. Helen stormed followed close behind by Henry and Kate who was wondering what the hell was going on.

"What the hell did you do?" Helen demanded as she pointed a gun at the confused vampire.

"What are you talking about?" He asked in confusion. He genuinely did not know what he had done this time to earn Helen's wrath.

"Henry found security footage of you doing something at the computer core. Now I want to know what the hell you are up to this time Nikola." Henry passed over the tablet to show a grainy image of Nikola typing on the console with a wicked smile on his face as he looked directly into the camera.

"What the hell?" Nikola said in surprise because there was no mistaking that it was him although it was impossible. "That can't be me. I was out trying to find Abby when this happened."

"Then how do you explain this Nikola?" Helen asked again.

"I don't know." Nikola said fiercely. "I just know that it isn't me as I have never had a reason to go into the core."

Helen lowered the gun slightly once she saw he was serious and sighed before holstering the weapon.

"I'm sorry Nikola. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions the way I did."

"In this case I would have to say that it is completely understandable. If our positions were reversed I would have had the same reaction. The real question in this case would be…who is that and what did they want?"

"I've been going through all the files and so far haven't found anything to suggest any type of damage to the system, nothing was downloaded and so far all the virus scans have come back clean, but I'll go through it again to make sure." Henry said before leaving yet again to determine what the hell was going on.

Nikola stared at the single frame of video again and shuddered slightly at the thought of someone or something out there using his appearance to cause who knows what kinds of trouble for everyone.

* * *

><p>"Well, well, I certainly was not expecting them to notice my little intrusion so quickly. It doesn't matter, it just makes things more interesting." The Tesla doppelganger grinned at the security feed he had hacked into yet again. They really needed to upgrade their security systems at the Sanctuary; it was much too easy to get into and took most of the fun out of it.<p>

"I don't see why you don't just kill them and be done with it." A soft feminine voice pierced the darkness beside him. He turned to look into a pair of icy blue eyes not unlike his own.

"I want him to suffer as I completely destroy everything he cares about and only when there is nothing left will I kill him." A wicked smile appeared as he thought about how well his plan had gone. The fact that the vampire's pretty little pet had gotten hurt in the process was just the topping on the cake and as far as he was concerned, things could not have gone any better then they did.

"Well if this backfires on you I am so saying I told you so." She said in a playful tone with a bright grin causing him to laugh softly.

"Don't worry my dear, everything will work perfectly. They don't even realize who I really am." He said and kissed her hand before turning back to the screens.

"What if they figure it out?" She asked in concern.

"They wont." Came the assured answer.

"What if they do?" She was still concerned at how flippant he was about this. It was behavior like this that would get them caught.

"They wont because it wont even occur to them to consider such a thing happening."

"I still don't like it. You should kill them now and be done with it."

"Soon my dear. Soon. Besides, if anything happens I still have you to pull me out of trouble now don't I?"

"Be nice or I'll let them catch you."

"You wouldn't allow that to happen, you'd miss me too much."

"Ok fine, but I would bring it up for weeks and make your life miserable."

"You don't do that already?" He said mischievously earning a swat on the arm from the woman.

"I'm going out now. Try not to get yourself kidnapped or killed or anything."

"I shall do my best."

"Good, cause I would hate to have to try and get your ass out of trouble. Again. See ya dad." She said before disappearing into the shadows.

He just chuckled and returned to watching the vampire worry about his pet.

"I made the first move, now what will be yours Nikola?" He muttered softly to himself before turning away to finish planning his next scheme.


	13. Notice

**Hey sorry about no new chapter here but unfortunately my Internet has been cut off and this has been the first chance I have had to get online to post this little note.**

**This note is just to let everyone know that I have not abandoned my stories but my updates will probably be few and far between so please be patient with me. Thank you all and I will do my best to update whenever I can.**


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